Wiliam Yang has long been famous both as a photographer and a performer. First rising to prominence with his photographs of gay Sydney in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, Yang also pioneered a performative kind of social history presentation, in which he displays his photos as slide projections in tandem with a spoken word monologue set to music.
Over the years, he’s refined and finessed the format, becoming at least as well known for these performances as for the photos themselves. Along the way, he’s explored gay Sydney – of course – but also the experiences of people from a diverse range of backgrounds.
This time, in William Yang: Milestone, the spotlight is firmly on himself. As Yang puts it: “I’ve told parts of this story in other pieces, since I’ve created over 14 works in total. Although the stories were personal, I’d never told a story just about me.”
There is a time and a place in an artist’s career for an autobiographical show like this. If it’s misjudged, it risks being seen as self-indulgent. But as an octogenarian and well over half-a-century into his career, Yang is on safe ground. More than safe, fitting. It’s high time Yang’s life and career were unpacked – and who better to do it than the man himself?
While many of Yang’s performance pieces have been set to recorded music, this time around he’s working with a symphony orchestra. Conducted here by Simon Bruckard, it includes pianist and composer Elena Kats-Chernin and co-orchestrator Lyle Chan in the ranks. The music provides an appropriate backdrop as Yang tells his tales, bolstering and enhancing the emotional aspects of the stories.
Said stories run the gamut of Yang’s upbringing in North Queensland, his Chinese-Australian heritage, his sexuality, his big move to the Emerald City and his illustrious career, which has taken his work to audiences across the globe.
He speaks of embracing his Chinese heritage (“people called me ‘born-again Chinese,’” he quips), of becoming a Taoist and of friends lost to HIV/AIDS. Particularly poignant is his series of photographs depicting the last days of friend and former lover Allan Booth, who died of an AIDS-related illness in 1990.
While Yang is strongly associated with Sydney’s gay community, some of the most interesting sections of the show deal with his family. The murder of his great uncle, William Fang Yuen, in Far North Queensand is explored, as are the relationships with (and deaths of) his parents and siblings. These poignant moments serve as a touchstone for both performer and audience; we can all relate and empathise, whether we have an artistic background or not.
Less interesting but perhaps more predictable is rather a lot of name-dropping throughout the show, including Brett Whiteley, Richard Neville, Zandra Rhodes, Ita Buttrose, Martin Sharp, Tiny Tim, Jackie Weaver, Bob Geldof and especially Jenny Kee. But to be fair, their stories intersect with Yang’s – and he has the photos to prove it.
Intriguingly, there is no mention whatsoever of Patrick White, despite Yang photographing the Nobel Prize-winning author and playwright numerous times, speaking extensively of him in past shows and even publishing the photographic book Patrick White: The Late Years.
Read: Theatre review: Dark Noon, Sydney Festival 2025
While this is Yang’s most autobiographical work to date, much of the content has been broached in his previous shows and there’s a strong sense of the content being curated, edited and even practiced.
Proverbial Band-Aids aren’t ripped off; there remains, at the end, something unknowable, even enigmatic about Yang.
But the show is interesting, engaging, affably presented – and after contributing so much to Sydney’s cultural life, Yang has earned the right to tell whatever stories he wants, however he pleases.
William Yang: Milestone
Roslyn Packer Theatre, NSW
Creator, performer, co-director: William Yang
Composer/pianist: Elena Kats-Chernin
Co-orchestrator: Lyle Chan
Dramaturg/co-director: Tessa Leong
Conductor: Simon Bruckard
Production managers: Aiden Brennan, Neil Simpson
Technical director: Daniel Herten
Lighting designer/operator: Sammy Read
Producer: Fenn Gordon for Tandem
William Yang: Milestone was performed at the Roslyn Packer Theatre as part of the Sydney Festival on 10-11 January 2025. It will be performed at Arts Centre Melbourne on 20 February 2025 as part of Asia TOPA.
