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They Saw a Thylacine single work   drama  
Issue Details: First known date: 2013... 2013 They Saw a Thylacine
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'They Saw a Thylacine: Out of the darkness, Sarah Hamilton and Justine Campbell conjure the ghost of one of Australia's lost beauties, the thylacine. With all the suspense of a campfire story, these feisty, funny women weave a lyrical tale of adversity and extinction. For this thylacine tracker and this zoo keeper's daughter, it's a quest not just to protect a threatened creature, but themselves. Rebellious and gutsy, these women face life and fight to survive.' (Publication summary)

Affiliation Notes

  • Thylacines and the Anthropocene

    This work is affiliated with the Thylacines and the Anthropocene dataset, tracking thylacine extinction and ecological themes in Australian literature. 

Production Details

  • Performed at the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2013.


    Later toured by Human Animal Exchange in 2015, with the following cast and crew:

    Presented by Performing Lines.

    Artistic Collaborator: Matthew Lutton.

    Set and Lighting Design: Matthew Adey.

    Sound Design: Jethro Woodward.

    Costume Design: Chloe Greaves.

    Cast: Justine Campbell and Sarah Hamilton.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 2013
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Endangered : Three Plays Justine Campbell , Sarah Hamilton , Hannie Rayson , Caleb Lewis , Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2017 11630361 2017 anthology drama

    'They Saw a Thylacine: Out of the darkness, Sarah Hamilton and Justine Campbell conjure the ghost of one of Australia's lost beauties, the thylacine. With all the suspense of a campfire story, these feisty, funny women weave a lyrical tale of adversity and extinction. For this thylacine tracker and this zoo keeper's daughter, it's a quest not just to protect a threatened creature, but themselves. Rebellious and gutsy, these women face life and fight to survive.

    'Extinction delves deep into the heart of our own morals, choices and tightly-held convictions. Extinction wraps an important conservation message around a unique and personal human story. A wild, rainy night, a twist of fate and an injured tiger quoll bring together a passionate environmentalist and an unlikely Good Samaritan. Both are hell-bent on saving the species, but intentions are murky. What will be compromised in the quest to save the quoll? Nothing is black and white in this intriguing story about love, sex, money and power.

    'The Honey Bees: As the world's honeybees disappear, a family-owned apiary struggles to keep up with overseas demand. Driven by matriarch Joan's iron will, the business continues to grow. And then Melissa arrives out of the blue. The Honey Bees is a tale of Family and Empire; Action and Consequences; and what happens when the bee finally stings. ' (Publication summary)

    Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2017

Works about this Work

'Beauty Tigress Queen' : Staging the Thylacine in a Theatre of Species Denise Varney , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 15 no. 2 2015;
'Awareness of non-human species, both plant and animal, has lagged well behind theatre’s primary focus on the human drama. The associated human/nature and culture/nature binary oppositions play out in theatre as character and setting, as metaphor and as landscapes of the human mind. In the modern era, theatre that aspires to be political or efficacious, or that believes itself to have a transformative effect on human consciousness, typically stages the social relations of class, race, gender and sexuality and takes on broad themes of war, justice and human rights. The non-human is represented as space, place, prop, pet, metaphor or allegory. From the 1990s, however, theatre scholars such as Arons, Chaudhuri, May, Kershaw, Tait and others have raised an ecocritical awareness within the field while theatre itself is becoming more overtly environmental in theme and content if not form. This article discusses a provocative work from the fringe that indicates an emerging critical and ethical conscious of the ‘more-than- human’ world: They Saw a Thylacine (Melbourne Fringe Festival, 2013).' (Publication abstract)
On the Edge of Extinction Anne-Marie Peard , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 18 September 2015; (p. 29)

— Review of They Saw a Thylacine Sarah Hamilton , Justine Campbell , 2013 single work drama
'Look at What We Have Done' Dewi Cooke , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 15 September 2015; (p. 28)

— Review of They Saw a Thylacine Sarah Hamilton , Justine Campbell , 2013 single work drama
'Look at What We Have Done' Dewi Cooke , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 15 September 2015; (p. 28)

— Review of They Saw a Thylacine Sarah Hamilton , Justine Campbell , 2013 single work drama
On the Edge of Extinction Anne-Marie Peard , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 18 September 2015; (p. 29)

— Review of They Saw a Thylacine Sarah Hamilton , Justine Campbell , 2013 single work drama
'Beauty Tigress Queen' : Staging the Thylacine in a Theatre of Species Denise Varney , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 15 no. 2 2015;
'Awareness of non-human species, both plant and animal, has lagged well behind theatre’s primary focus on the human drama. The associated human/nature and culture/nature binary oppositions play out in theatre as character and setting, as metaphor and as landscapes of the human mind. In the modern era, theatre that aspires to be political or efficacious, or that believes itself to have a transformative effect on human consciousness, typically stages the social relations of class, race, gender and sexuality and takes on broad themes of war, justice and human rights. The non-human is represented as space, place, prop, pet, metaphor or allegory. From the 1990s, however, theatre scholars such as Arons, Chaudhuri, May, Kershaw, Tait and others have raised an ecocritical awareness within the field while theatre itself is becoming more overtly environmental in theme and content if not form. This article discusses a provocative work from the fringe that indicates an emerging critical and ethical conscious of the ‘more-than- human’ world: They Saw a Thylacine (Melbourne Fringe Festival, 2013).' (Publication abstract)
Last amended 26 May 2022 09:57:23
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