Radiant Women on Radiant Country

‘The play ain’t no kitchen-sink, bourgeois drama. Thankfully there’s not a kitchen sink in sight – just a far North Queensland house high up on stilts on the fringes of town receiving, filtering and magnifying all of the elements that the sea and the land can throw at it. It is in this house in the sky, with a tropical storm brewing, that long suppressed family secrets begin to unfurl.’


In Radiant Women on Radiant Country, Andrea James presents a contemporary response to a treasured Australian play – a fascinating look at the development and significance of Radiance by Louis Nowra.


Radiant Women on Radiant Country is part of Cue the Chorus, a series of ten thought-provoking responses to classic Australian stories. The other titles in the series are:


1. An Ever-Changing Idiom by Alana Valentine – a response to Summer of the Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler


2. The Makings of a Man by John Harding – a response to No Sugar by Jack Davis


3. Playing Awkward by Noëlle Janacewska – a response to The Chapel Perilous by Dorothy Hewett


4. Pulling Rabbits Out of Hats by Melissa Reeves – a response to Speaking in Tongues by Andrew Bovell


5. Robin Shall Restore Amends by Hilary Bell – a response to Away by Michael Gow


6. Still Waters by Wesley Enoch – a response to The Secret River by Kate Grenville; an adaptation for the stage by Andrew Bovell


7. The Unexpected Feminist by Van Badham – a response to The Removalists by David Williamson


8. What Goes Around Comes Around by Kate Mulvany – a response to Hotel Sorrento by Hannie Rayson


9. A Youth Presumed by Finegan Kruckemeyer – a response to Blackrock by Nick Enright