The Bleeding Tree

The Bleeding Tree

Sydney Theatre Company shares with Griffin Theatre Company in bringing the original production of The Bleeding Tree by Angus Cerini to the Wharf in March.

The Bleeding Tree premiered at Griffin Theatre Company in 2015, earning praise as “a great and complex production” (The Australian). It went on to win three Helpmann Awards – including Best Play for Angus Cerini, Best Direction for Lee Lewis and Best Female Actor Paula Arundell – as well as a 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Award. In 2017, STC is bringing back to a new audience.

The Wharf production promises to have audiences on the edge of their seats as we discover that a mother and her two daughters have killed their abusive husband and father. The women face a tangle of practical and ethical considerations as a result of their actions. Their community turns a blind eye and rallies around them.

The rural setting lends the story the air of the gothic, while the script, so redolent of revenge tragedy, provides more humour than the situation would appear to allow.

Paula Arundell, Airlie Dodds and Shari Sebbens from the original cast are reunited with director Lee Lewis, designer Renée Mulder, lighting designer Verity Hampson and composer Steve Toulmin in this revival.

Angus Cerini, a winner of STC’s Patrick White Playwrights’ Award, has had his work presented by companies throughout Australia, including Sydney Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, Arena Theatre Company, Melbourne Workers Theatre, Union House Theatre and Platform Youth Theatre.

Cerini has been praised for his sharp and evocative use of language and his playful rhymes, but above all, Cerini certainly knows how to kick a story along, as he does in The Bleeding Tree.

Until Apr 9, various performance times. Wharf Theatre, The Wharf, 4 Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay. $39-$55. Tickets & Info: www.sydneytheatre.com.au

By Irina Dunn.

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