National Interest by Aidan Fennessy
National Interest
Tony Stewart was just 21 when he was killed in Balibo in October 1975. 32 years after Tony and his television news crew were murdered, the ghosts of the past are awakened again during the coronial inquest.
For Tony’s mother June, these ghosts are as real and as tangible as her daughter Jane, standing in the kitchen with her. Jane wants to lay the ghosts to rest but June can’t let go. Her anger and pain over what happened to her boy have not abated, no matter what the inquest findings are.
Sitting in the kitchen one evening, Jane forces June to open up the old wounds and talk about her feelings. But can truth, time and love heal decades of pain?
The fate of the Balibo Five shocked Australia in 1975 and the issues still reverberate today. National Interest personalises the headlines with a story of a family who lived through tragedy but refuse to be defined by it.
“National Interest is a play about justice, time, love, personal reconciliation and the ghosts that we invent that both comfort and haunt us.” Aidan Fennessy
“Balibo is a word and an issue that just won’t go away.” Sydney Morning Herald
"Aidan’s personal connection to this story of international intrigue and domestic tragedy gives an authentic voice to those who lived through tragedy but refuse to be defined by it." Kate Cherry
WORLD PREMIERE, a co-production with Melbourne Theatre Company
Cast Includes: James Bell, Julia Blake, Grant Cartwright, Michelle Fornasier, Stuart Halusz, Polly Low
Playwright and Director: Aidan Fennessy
Designers: Set & Costume Designer Christina Smith, Lighting Designer Trent Suidgeest Sound Composer Ben Collins
5 – 20 May 2012
Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA
Duration: Approx. 90 minutes [no interval]
Warning: Some coarse language and strobe lighting.
The performance is based in part upon the death of Australian journalists in East Timor in 1975, and its effect on the lives of their families. Whilst the characters in the play are based upon real persons, the statements made in the play may not be attributable to those or any other persons.
Associate Partner:
Western Australian Museum - Perth are showing Debt of Honour: Australia’s First Commandos and East Timor until 4 June, 2012. This free exhibition tells the remarkable but little known story of the exceptional war effort of the 2/2nd Independent Company in East Timor during the Second World War.
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