Merrigong Theatre Company Will Stage THE VISITORS This Month

Merrigong Theatre Company will present Sydney Theatre Company and Moogahlin Performing Arts’s The Visitors, by Muruwari playwright Jane Harrison, at Illawarra Performing Arts Centre from 25th to 28th October. 

After its critically acclaimed, award-winning  premiere at the 2020 Sydney Festival, The Visitors will be reworked for this brand-new production directed by one of Australia’s most celebrated directors, Quandamooka man Wesley Enoch (Queensland Theatre Company’s Sunshine Super Girl).

On a sweltering day in January 1788, seven clan leaders gather on a sandstone escarpment overlooking the harbour. The attendees, six Elders and one new initiate catch up, laugh together, share a meal and compare notes. But beyond the friendly banter, protocols, and hospitality, a momentous decision awaits.

A mysterious fleet of giant nawi is amassing in the harbour, and as they creep closer, these seven representatives must choose unanimously: Should they send these strangers on their way or welcome them?

The Visitors is a riveting, deeply researched insight into one of Australia’s most impactful and painful days and a hugely entertaining study of how communities respond to change and the unknown.

The Visitors features an all-star cast, including Joseph Wunujaka Althouse (Hayes Theatres’ The Lucky Country), Luke Carroll (Belvoir’s At What Cost?), Elaine Crombie (STC’s The 7 Stages of Grieving), Kyle Morrison (Bell Shakespeare’s Macbeth), Guy Simon (Griffin’s Whitefella Yella Tree), Beau Dean Riley Smith (QTC’s Sunshine Super Girl), and Dalara Williams (TV’s The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart).

Simon Hinton, Merrigong Theatre Company's Artistic Director and CEO, said, “The Visitors is one of the most important pieces of Australian theatre of the last few years, and it’s fantastic for Wollongong audiences to be able to see it. At a time when we are as a nation reflecting on  the last 235 troubled years of our history, this is an incisive, clever, witty, reflection on the moment in 1788 when everything changed for Aboriginal people, but above everything it is great theatre.”

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