I had such high hopes for this show, publicised by, “On a stage covered in the red dirt of the prairie, a pioneer town springs up in real time as an extraordinary cast of South African actors reimagines the story of the American frontier through an outsider’s lens. Directed by Danish visionary Tue Biering and South African co-director and choreographer Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Dark Noon challenges everything you thought you knew about the Wild West”. It was after all, “Fresh from five-star runs at New York’s St Ann’s Warehouse, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Factory International”.

But I must be getting old. For the challenging trope of having Black South African actors play the poor whites who fled an impoverished Europe in the 19th Century to grab land in America’s wild West didn’t actually provoke anything in me. For, having seen a black actor star in Ibsen in London and another tear up the stage in Arthur Miller in New York, not to mention many incidents if colour-blind casting of First Nations actors in Oz, the cartoonish efforts of the vastly over-worked white-face cast in ‘Dark Noon’ simply wore me out. Every building constructed blocked my view, every modish filmed episode simply transferred my attention from the live acting to the screen (unlike the STC’s efforts) , and America’s history of land grabbing, Indian massacres, slavery (in the Wild West?), gold rushes, railways and technology, capitalism, sheriffs and whisky priests was, for the most part, unsurprisingly recounted, though, I admit, sometimes wittily satirised.

But did the oft-publicised scene of white members of the audience being auctioned off as slaves really shock as predicted? One woman certainly didn’t seem to realise why she was worth $100. And audience-members in the bleachers seemed to spend more time on than off-stage! Which might have been a challenge for them.

Yes, the various narrators calmed things down to deliver their ironic scripts; yes, the idea of giving the settlers American footy outfits to defeat the Indians was clever; and yes, breaks for singing revealed South African mellifluousness at its finest. Oh, and the almost opening line after a classic mimed Hollywood shoot-out, “White lives don’t matter”, was about as good as it got.

In fact, the best came right after The End was announced. For the cast reverted to themselves – now sweaty, exhausted and painted in a motley of colours – each telling us how the American film Western impacted on their ordinary township lives. The range was wide and the effect surprisingly emotional. But it couldn’t erase my unease at earlier sightings of cannibalism, buggery and a totally unexplained ‘The Genocides’ which were slipped gratuitously into the history.

So, thanks to the heroic cast of Mandla Gaduka, Katlego Kaygee Letsholonyana, Lillian Malulyck, Bongani Bennedict Masango, Siyambonga Alfred Mdubeki, Joe Young and Thulani Zwane. They may love the world touring that’s resulted from this show. But I feel they are being exploited.

The show’s at the Sydney Town Hall until 23 January.