My fascination with colonial Australian history began in my teen-years when my next door neighbour Eve Dutton, a history buff herself, took my brother and me on a number of excursions to Sydney’s historic Houses. I immediately fell in love with Vaucluse House and Elizabeth Bay House and was fascinated by each of their histories and intrigued by the colourful characters who dwelt there over 150-years ago.

Later in life this fascination with colonial history would lead me to read a number of books including The Ship That Never Was, by Adam Courtenay, For the Term of His Natural Life, by Marcus Clarke, William Charles Wentworth, by Andrew Tink and most importantly, The Fatal Shore, by Robert Hughes. While reading Hughes’ 600-page history of Australia I discovered some very humourous and biting remarks made by a settler named Louisa Anne Meredith who described Sydney’s gentry as being, superficial, vulgar and having no intellectual pursuits at all. This was the genesis for my play and the start of a three-year obsession with the woman who wrote those words.

I became determined to write a play about this little-known Australian heroine using her own words, her own observations, her own turns of phrase and opinions which are vividly documented in her book; Notes and Sketches of New South Wales. For me, Louisa has become a very real and very tangible person in my life. She is smart, witty, adventurous, inquisitive, industrious, poetic, soulful and yet enigmatic, contradictory, and elusive. In the three years of knowing Louisa she has become my trusted collaborator and in many ways the co-author of this play.

As a writer / director I have aimed, as far as possible, for historical accuracy consulting with historians, museum guides, and aboriginal elders to lend credence to this fictional story. I wanted to write a play that resurrects this dusty era of Australian history in a gritty, gothic yet playful way, full of Dickensian-style characters, with a tone that doesn’t feel like homework.

I have been blessed and delighted by this cast and crew who have enthusiastically joined me in my pursuit to comprehend our past in order to make sense of our present. When we consider the black and white photos of Louisa and her family from 1800’s Australia we find ourselves asking; "Who were these people?" "What did they talk about?" "How did they sound?" and "How did they feel about their new home?"

We hope to answer these questions in our play and ignite in the audience a love for our local history and a gratitude to the men and women who came before us and have shaped our own lives in ways we can never fully appreciate.

Charles Meredith

Neilson Brown

Lousia Anne Meredith

Kristin Placko

Silas Hegarty

John Brown

Mary Dawes

Bernadette Hunter

Everard Coy

Don Ezard

Col. George McClintock

Stephen Wheatley

Minnie Coy

Cecelia Smith

Arabella Coy

Olivia Riddell

Lt. Josiah Brownrigg

Jono Lukins

Understudy: Micah Doughty

Wallace Hopkins

Timothy Winkels

Director

Timothy Smith

Assistant Director

Micah Doughty

Production Manager

Paul Murphy

Set & Design Manager

Joseph Elzerman

Set & Design assistant

Lachlan Hanson

Set Construction

James Fanning, David Colman, Billy Munce

Prop Design

Patrick Brandt, Thom Power

Costume Managers

Grace Woods, Isaiah Boyle

Costume Design

Kateri Rosengren

Sound & Lighting Design

Seth Elzerman

Sound & Lighting Technician

Robyn Diedricks

Stage Manager

Marie Yeo

Logistics Coordinator

Joseph Elzerman

Front of House Manager

Felicity Fanning

Marketing Manager

Marie Yeo

Marketing

Ruby Brown, Pearce Lyall, Elizabeth Rebbechi

Graphic Design

Paul Murphy

Photography

Clare Murphy