The Shiralee

Macauley is a swagman earning his keep by prize-fighting his way across the country. Far away in Sydney’s Kings Cross, his almost ten-year-old daughter Buster lives with her lonely mother Marge, who is struggling to make ends meet. When Macauley returns home one night to find Marge in bed with another man, and Buster drunk on sherry, he throws Buster over his shoulder and takes her into his unforgiving lifestyle as a swagman on the open road. Encountering the land’s custodians, settlers, drifters and authorities on their travels in search of work, Buster begins to understand not only the complexity of Australia but also of her father Macauley. In return, Mac learns about his daughter and her own place in the world—a father and child walking together under a vast Southern sky.

Tenderly adapted from D’Arcy Niland’s historic novel, award-winning playwright, actress and screenwriter Kate Mulvany returns with the same storytelling mastery that charmed us in her adaptations of The Harp in the South and Playing Beatie Bow. 

‘Mulvany doesn’t just apply depth, she also adds breadth, reaching beyond the novel to include a few more stories that wouldn’t or couldn’t be written down so freely at the time.’ — The Guardian

‘Breathes new life into a classic Australian story. One that has now, surely, become an Australian classic play.’— The Scoop AU