The Great Fire at Lookingglass Theatre Co

A comedy, a family, ten actors, a landscape (view of the Adelaide Hills), a great deal of conversation about politics and life, Christmas, large hopes, five tons of love.* The Great Fire is a big new play about us – middle Australia in 2016.

Many years ago, in the 1970s, in pursuit of a good life and a sustainable future, Judith and Patrick built a house in the Adelaide Hills. They raised the kids here. As time wore on, bit by bit, the family drifted both from the house and the dream it was born from. Now it’s Christmas, the first grandchild is on the way and all three generations have gathered again. In the tinderbox heat of summer, Judith is at a crossroads: can the life they pursued in the first place come good again?

Warm, funny, deeply felt, The Great Fire is the work of a brilliant new writing talent, Kit Brookman, with a brilliant ensemble cast. We present it here as a kind of companion to The Blind Giant is Dancing – a pair of plays a generation apart about family, about holding your course, about what will survive of the fading triumph of Australian social democracy.

*With apologies to Anton Chekhov, whose own description of his play The Seagull we have adapted here.