No Sugar

How do the White people respond to Jimmy's urgent cries for assistance?

Act 1 scene seven 

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Playwright, Jack Davis, stages two simultaneous meetings between Aborigines and white authorities in Scene 7, a dramatic device known as the perambulate model. Jimmy goes to visit Neville about train fare home after his jail sentence, while at the same time, Gran and Milly visit Carrol to tell him about Cissie's illness. We see each scene at the same time, which heightens the stakes of each of the characters' plights and throws into relief the desperate situation the Millamuras find themselves in.

At the Chief Protector's office, in 1932, Jimmy sits outside waiting for Neville. When Neville arrives, Jimmy ask him for train fare, but Neville insists that he has to wait for the office to open, suggesting that "sugar catches more flies than vinegar." As Neville goes into his office, Constable Kerr comes into the office, limping from a soccer injury. He is followed by Miss Dunn, and Jimmy asks her if he can talk to Neville. She tells Jimmy to wait at a bench for Aborigines. Neville asks Dunn to connect him to Carrol. Meanwhile, Jimmy tries to convince Miss Dunn to let him speak to Neville, but he tells her to make him wait. Jimmy tries to reason with her, telling her that he just got out of jail and he needs train fare back home. Neville communicates that if he comes back after two o'clock, he can get a travel voucher. Later that day, Neville calls Jimmy in and gives him a travel voucher for an 11 o'clock mixed-goods train. Jimmy wants to take a 5 o'clock train instead, so he can look around. As he leaves, he says, "Native Protector, couldn't protect my dog from fleas."

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