Kalgoorlie-Boulder is a place where children can grow up wild and free - the remote nature and bush surrounds almost guarantee a life exploring waterholes, travelling dusty roads and building strong family bonds.

Like most who have lived in the goldmining town though, Wongutha-Yamatji man Meyne Wyatt was well aware of the darker side of the place he loves and grew up in.

Kalgoorlie-Boulder was and remains a town with a reputation as a wild west 'anything goes' place beset by hard-drinking miners, bikies and racism.

It is a reputation Wyatt explores in his semi-autobiographical play City of Gold, a gritty drama canvassing the kind of injustice and racism in a way only those with lived experience can.

"I am showing a particular version of the town that is there, that is real, warts and all, and that I think deserves a voice," he said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TonuxQGXvPU

"It is the wild west, the cowboy town that does have all those elements, but then there is the people who live there and they live there because it is home.

"There is also the other version of the mining and the drinking and the drugs and the bikies and racism which is another facet.

"That is the one I wanted to talk about which needed to have more of a national eye on, and I feel some of the issues raised in the play address some of those things."

Wyatt's show centres around Breythe, an aspiring actor who finds himself pigeonholed in Indigenous roles and black shows which, while they pay well, leave him on the outer with his own community.

The play itself was borne from a heart in the darkness. In 2016 Wyatt was grieving the death of his father one year earlier and at the same time found himself at a crossroads in his career.

"I had been working in the industry for about six years and kind of was a bit disillusioned with the industry because the same kind of work was coming my way," he said.

"I wanted to write, and while I was in a bit of a rut I was plateauing in my career a bit so thought maybe this is the time to do it."

Out of that the idea was born to build a show which encapsulated the feeling of being Indigenous in Australia, while affording Wyatt the kind of role he was not being offered.

"There's no point in doing a lovely sanitised version of the show because I don't think anyone connects to it" - Meyne Wyatt

That subtle form of 21st century racism is a feeling Wyatt knows all to well from his own personal experience and this is evident throughout the show - most notably when Breythe is typecast in a controversial Australia Day ad which draws the ire of his mob

"You are stereotyped or pigeonholed into whatever context, but specifically because this character and me personally as an actor, I really wanted to go against that," Wyatt said.

"This play is a contemporary show with predominantly black characters on stage performing to a mainstream theatre, doing a contemporary story with a black narrative and we have authorship of that.

"We are showing a family I had never seen on stage or screen because it is my personal experience."

The family theme doesn't stop on stage - Wyatt's cousin Matthew Cooper is among the the predominately WA cast Wyatt is excited to work alongside.

While Kalgoorlie doesn't escape the show's critical gaze, Wyatt said it wasn't a full picture of his own fondness for his hometown.

The cast of City of Gold, which will open in Perth in March.

"I loved going to Lake Gidgee when it was raining when I was a kid, go bush, go camping, go to Lake Douglas," he said.

"The memories I do have are all the good things, because the bad things no one wants to think about that because it makes life shit.

"Growing up with my cousins and riding on the back of the ute, legally, all those things and going hunting and that sort of stuff has imprinted on me and made me who I am.

"I only have fond memories of the place - it gives you that tougher skin."

And as for the reception he expects from those who know and love Kalgoorlie, Wyatt is circumspect.

"If they are saying it is bull***t, it is bull***t, but if they are relating to it then I have done my job," he said.

"There's no point in doing a lovely sanitised version of the show because I don't think anyone connects to it."

City of Gold runs from March 17 to 27 at the Heath Ledger Theatre. It is presented by Black Swan State Theatre Company of WA and Sydney Theatre Company.

It will run at Sydney's Wharf 1 Theatre from May 7 to June 11.