Taxi drivers bar Aboriginal actors

Malthouse King Lear: A group of prominent Aboriginal actors have been repeatedly refused fare by taxi drivers in Southbank and racially abused on a St Kilda tram while making their way back to work. In Melbourne to rehearse Shadow King, an indigenous adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear for the Malthouse Theatre, the group includes eminent actors such as Tom E Lewis, star of 1978 film The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Rabbit-Proof Fence star Natasha Wanganeen, Redfern Now actors Jada Alberts and Rarriwuy Hick, Chooky Dancer Djamangi Gaykamangu and Ten Canoes actor Frances Djulibing. Four separate cabs booked to pick up from the Malthouse on Monday from 6.30pm refused the fare once they arrived and saw the passengers, Hick said. Only after the Malthouse's non-indigenous company manager Nina Bonacci hailed a taxi were Hick, Gaykamangu and Djubiling able to return to their Fitzroy Street hotel.