Cirrus@Austlit

'Priya and Nades left war-torn Sri Lanka and found each other in regional Queensland. They married, had two daughters, worked hard and settled into a simple but happy country life.

'The community welcomed them with open arms — but four years later came a knock at the door and they were ripped away in a dawn raid.

'Their story could have ended there, but a brave band of Biloela women weren’t giving up on them so easily.

'Fighting alongside the young refugee family, they launched a grassroots, people-powered campaign that galvanised hundreds of thousands of ordinary Australians to demand the family be brought back to Bilo. This is the remarkable true account of one family’s ordeal in the nightmare limbo of immigration detention, a story of how love is stronger than fear and of how persistence and togetherness can win against crushing odds.

'Back to Bilo is a profoundly moving new play from celebrated local company Belloo Creative (Boy, Lost) and is made with — and from — the heart of regional Queensland.'

Source: Production blurb.

'Boy, Lost is a true story of a boy’s lifelong search for his mother.

'Adapted from Kristina Olsson’s award-winning memoir, Boy, Lost is a dynamic new production by Queensland Theatre’s 2020 resident company, Belloo Creative. A true story of a boy snatched from his mother’s arms and their journey back to one another, this is an ultimately uplifting story of survival.

'Travelling down the train tracks of the east coast of Australia and spanning fifty years, the play ricochets from post war Brisbane to Cairns and Sydney as it follows one boy’s life long search and a family’s journey from loss to redemption.

'Told in Belloo Creative’s signature style of fluid storytelling and physicality, Boy, Lost combines dramatic storytelling and nuanced music theatre to create a testament to the tenacity of the human spirit.

'From the book by Kristina Olsson
'Adapted for the stage by Katherine Lyall-Watson' (Production summary)

'It’s the not-too-distant future, and with a defiant cry of QUEENSLANDER!, we’ve broken away. Again.

'First Lady Phaedra and President Theseus are building a mighty wall along Queensland's southern border to keep the 'filthy' Newies from our gates. When Theseus takes off with the triumphant Broncos on a moraleboosting tour, Phaedra is left alone to run the country and look after Theseus' teenage son, Hip, newly arrived from boarding school.

'Hip's arrival stirs something in Phaedra she never expected and when Hip's mother shows up on the doorstep, too … well you know what they say about Queensland. Beautiful one day, tragic the next.'

Source: Queensland Theatre Company.

'Australia breeds its women tough – and adventurous. Intrepid performers Roxanne McDonald and Barbara Lowing get behind the wheel and navigate us into risky terrain, journeying through the heart line of their lives and into the hilarious misadventures of the women who made them who they are today.

'Celebrate the grit and daring of women trailblazers with two of our best-loved actors in the rough and tumble of multiple stories and characters.'

Source: Northern Rivers Performing Arts Centre.

'Come on an electric, cross-cultural journey with the award-winning theatre-makers behind Motherland.

'HANAKO plunges the audience into the hyper-realistic fantasy of a young Japanese girl journeying from the pages of a traditional Noh play into an imagined future-world as she attempts to escape the control of two warring adults from East and West, past and present.

'Traditional Japan collides with contemporary urban culture, music, anime and fashion as the audience follows Hanako on her precarious journey into the future.'

'Motherland tells the story of Nell Tritton, whose family owned the landmark Tritton's Furniture Store in George St, and who fell in love with exiled former Russian prime minister Aleksandr Kerensky while travelling in France in the 1920s. The play encompasses adultery, war, love, bisexuality and death.'

(Source: Courier Mail, 22 April 2013, p.11)