Director: Darren Yap.
Designer: James Browne.
Co-composer/Co-sound Designer: Max Lambert and Roger Lock.
Lighting Designer: Toby Knyvett.
Cast: Jeanette Cronin, Glenn Hazeldine, Phillip Hinton, and Jane Phegan.
'There are three things that have divided this nation right down the centre. Conscription, Whitlam and Lindy Chamberlain.
'Filled with humour and heartbreak, this stunning new work by award-winning playwright Alana Valentine explores the public’s relationship with one of 20th Century Australia’s most iconic figures.
'The court case captivated a nation. A mother accused of murdering her child, her claim – that the baby was taken by a dingo – denied and discredited by zealous police and a flawed legal system. The media circus, the rumours, the nation’s prejudices laid bare. And in the eye of the storm – Lindy Chamberlain.
'Over three decades, from baby Azaria’s death to the final coroner’s report, the public’s fascination with Lindy has seldom waned. The National Library in Canberra holds a collection of more than 20,000 letters to Lindy. From sympathy to abuse, from marriage proposals to death threats and photos of dogs’ birthday parties (yes, really!), the correspondence traverses the gamut of human response to Lindy’s story.
'Letters to Lindy draws on this extraordinary correspondence and interviews with Lindy herself, to create an enthralling, revealing, and long overdue dialogue between Lindy and the nation. It paints a singular portrait of the heartbreak, wisdom and resilience of a grieving mother.' (Production summary)
Merrigong Theatre Company in association with Canberra Theatre Centre : 9-13 August 2016.
Merrigong Theatre / Canberra Theatre production repeated 22-23 June 2018.
Director: Darren Yap.
Designer: James Browne.
Co-composer/Co-sound Designer: Max Lambert and Roger Lock.
Lighting Designer: Toby Knyvett.
Cast: Jeanette Cronin, Glenn Hazeldine, Phillip Hinton, and Jane Phegan.
Merrigong Theatre / Canberra Theatre production repeated 14-15 August 2018. Performed at The Playhouse - Darwin Entertainment Centre, as part of Darwin Festival.
'This chapter considers contemporary re-visions of biographical theatre and maps a movement on the Australian mainstage between 2007 and 2020 away from a reliance on the verifiable facts of a subject’s life to a more theatrical embrace of its affective contours. Each of the case studies theatricalises the life of its subject, from Patricia Highsmith in Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland (2014), through Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton in Letters to Lindy (2016) by Alana Valentine, to Mark Colvin and Mary-Ellen Field in Tommy Murphy’s Mark Colvin’s Kidney (2017). In the following duologue, Murphy and Valentine discuss the burden of truth that falls on the playwright and how they have negotiated the truth claims across their body of biographical theatre works.' (Publication abstract)
'This chapter considers contemporary re-visions of biographical theatre and maps a movement on the Australian mainstage between 2007 and 2020 away from a reliance on the verifiable facts of a subject’s life to a more theatrical embrace of its affective contours. Each of the case studies theatricalises the life of its subject, from Patricia Highsmith in Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland (2014), through Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton in Letters to Lindy (2016) by Alana Valentine, to Mark Colvin and Mary-Ellen Field in Tommy Murphy’s Mark Colvin’s Kidney (2017). In the following duologue, Murphy and Valentine discuss the burden of truth that falls on the playwright and how they have negotiated the truth claims across their body of biographical theatre works.' (Publication abstract)
