Overland 254 is the first in a set of four special editions dedicated to commemorating 70 years of Overland. This issue also launches a new design and format by Common Room Editions, inspired by Overland’s trove of radical literature spanning from 1954 to today. Andrew Brooks and Astrid Lorange consider the asymmetrical responses to two events: the wearing of keffiyehs by three cast members during the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Anton Chekov’s The Seagull, and, on the same day in the US, the shooting of three Palestinian men wearing keffiyehs. Jeff Sparrow uncovers the Sydney Herald’s legacy of Terra Nullius, and Daniel Lopez writes on Marx, Meredith and the festival as an inversion of modern life.
Rob Johnson is a writer and actor based in Sydney. He is a winner of the Hal Porter Short Story Prize and the Best of Times Short Story Competition, and has previously been shortlisted for the Hachette Australia and John Marsden Prize for Young Writers. He was the lead writer of live sketch comedy shows Fat On Purpose (Giant Dwarf) and The Recidivists (Red Line). As an actor, Rob's recent credits include The Torrents (Sydney Theatre Company), Calamity Jane (Belvoir) and Spamalot (One Eyed Man).
