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ABOUT MARY BRYANT
Music by David King
Book and Lyrics by Nick Enright

 

Based on real events
 

November 21-24 2007
Theatreworks
14 Acland Street St. Kilda
A: $25  C: $22

"Homer himself could not do your story justice..."

"If you're after an Australian musical, look no further"
Carrie Kablean, Sunday Telegraph

Set to a classic, evocative score, the legendary true story of one woman's quest for a better life during the harsh realities of Australia's colonial settlement comes to life in the epic musical, Mary Bryant.

This collaboration between Nick Enright, one of Australias most prolific writers with credits including The Boy From Oz and Chasing the Dragon, and David King, whose musical direction and stage and screen composition accomplishments include Cats and Showboat, captures the harshness and beauty of the Australian landscape and the human heart.

The Mary Bryant story begins in the late 1800's, when she is sentenced to seven years deportation to the Botany Bay penal colony. After the eight month journey on board the First Fleet, Mary and her fellow convicts are given the task of building a new world at the polar end of civilization but food supplies quickly diminish, and starvation and disease claim the lives of many.

Desperate and hungry, a small band of convicts including Mary, her husband Will and baby Charlotte escape to sea on the colony's fishing boat, setting their sights on the Dutch port of Timor. Alone in a small boat in the most isolated part of the world, the escapees face conditions far worse than they left behind - furious storms, harsh open sunlight, and depleted food and supplies as they navigate the then uncharted Great Barrier Reef and the Torres Strait.

Now regarded as one of the greatest sailing voyages in history, Mary Bryant's escape took 66 days and over 5,000 kilometres.

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Image credits
Mary Bryant Logo: Artwork Lauren Elise
Photograph:  Cole Rintoul and Lisa-Marie Charalambous (Photography Sebastien Arnold)