Summary

The Strange Black Creatures and Mark, the Syrup and the Ashes follow the trajectory of the novel The Cruel Field. They are authentic accounts of a lived experience. The plays, like the novel are set in 1951 the fictional town of Nagonda, located somewhere between Babinda and Mossman. The plays' main two protagonists are Mark Wescott, an Australian rough diamond, and Emery Carroll, British immigrant and aspiring playwright (Naish's alter-ego). In the 1951 harvest season they sign-up to cut cane in the same gang for the mercenary Italian farmer Peter. The brutal work under a relentless tropical sun takes its toll on both experienced and inexperienced canecutters. Where The Maoris ends with the ill Jeff not wanting to give up on his contract The Strange Black Creatures and Mark, the Syrup and the Ashes end where the novel does with Jeff's wife Betty setting the cane on fire to force an early end to the season with tragic consequence.