The Magic Hour

Fairy-tales reworked, funny, furious and fantastic, as tales of the marginalised.


Original fairy-tales were about bravado, fortune, destiny and courage. But always, watching from the edges, were the quiet ones. The bit characters. The weary mothers, the ugly sisters, the irrelevant queens, the grandmothers.


In The Magic Hour, they get their chance to shine.


From beach shacks and caravan parks, in Housing Commission towers and old school discos, in backyard gardens ……

Welcome one and all to "the twilight hour, the dreaming hour, The Magic Hour"


Written and directed by Vanessa Bates, featuring Louise Chapman and Jan Hunt with live music by Amy Vee, all award winning Novocastrian creatives.


"Vanessa Bates' play is full of unlikely fairy-tale damsels in distress – bleeding, coarse and filled with rage, hope and hot desire... relentless energy and humour." The Guardian