With their mining-mogul father dead, the Alba household is in mourning. All four daughters have been called home to pay their respects by their mother, who is truly a force of nature. The future seems wildly uncertain for all but the eldest sister, who has inherited a fortune and is engaged to the local heartthrob. But as tensions rise and tempers flare, will any of them have the power to alter their own destinies?
Meet the actors who have been cast in the world premiere production of The House Of Bernarda Alba adapted by Patricia Cornelius, after Federico García Lorca.
Candy Bowers (Marti)
Candy Bowers is an actor, writer, comedian, activist and the Co-Artistic Director of Black Honey Company (BHC). Her original works for stage include Hot Brown Honey, Australian Booty and Who’s That Chik? (BHC). Her acting credits include: Camae in The Mountaintop (Queensland Theatre) and Hester in In The Blood (BSharp/Belvoir.) Candy’s TV credits include The Ex-PM, Get Krack!n, Tonightly with Tom Ballard (ABC) and The Cry (BBC). In 2018 Candy was awarded the Geoffrey Milne Award for Outstanding Contribution to Independent Theatre by the Green Room Association (GRAA); 2017 Best Female Actor – Theatre (nomination); Best EnsembleTheatre Winner (GRAA); 2017 Helpmann Award for Best Cabaret Production and the 2016 UK Total Theatre Award for Innovation and Experimentation. Candy is a proud member of the Equity Diversity Committee (MEAA), Stella Schools Champion and ambassador for the #NOWAustralia movement. Candy first worked with Melbourne Theatre Company in 2016 as the Stage-Hand-InCharge and Music Consultant on Straight White Men and as Charles Penworth in Lilith: The Jungle Girl by Sisters Grimm.
Peta Brady (Angela)
Peta Brady was last seen at the Melbourne Theatre Company in productions of Shark Fin Soup, Diving For Pearls, Raindancers and the multi-awarded play SHIT first on at MTC NEON season and will soon go into its fifth season touring nationally. Theatre highlights include Love (Hothouse Theatre/Malthouse Theatre for which she won the Gerda Nicholson Award for emerging actor) and The Call (Melbourne Worker’s Theatre). Other highlights include Save for Crying (La Mama). She has also worked with Zeal Theatre company touring schools with Fixin Bart and Maggie and Mouse. Peta has written and performed in three of her own works Strands, Status Update (La Mama) and Ugly Mugs (Malthouse Theatre/Griffin Theatre). Ugly Mugs was nominated twice for Best-Female Actor and Best New Writing for main stage at the 2015 Green Room Awards. Peta Brady has performed in various TV shows such as Neighbours, Blue Heelers, Good Guys Bad Guys, City Homicide, The Slap, It’s a Date, Simone de Beauvoirs Babies, Kath and Kim, Pigs Breakfast and Jack Irish to name a few. Films include Mullet, Pawno and a yet to be released film called Some Happy Day coming out soon.
Julie Forsyth (Penelope)
Julie Forsyth’s theatre credits for Melbourne Theatre Company include Endgame, Private Lives, The Visit, Great Expectations, The Tempest, The Chairs, The Comedy of Errors, A Cheery Soul, After Magritte, The Real Inspector Hound and Man The Balloon. Other theatre includes: The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man, Night On Bald Mountain, Elizabeth: Almost By Chance A Woman, Happy Days, Moving Target, Babes In The Wood, The Ham Funeral, Journal of The Plague Year (Malthouse Theatre); The Popular Mechanicals (STCSA); The Book of Everything, The Small Poppies, The Ham Funeral, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Cloudstreet (Belvoir); The Dream, Phèdre (Bell Shakespeare); Romeo and Juliet, The Metamorphosis, The Miser, Old Masters (STC); and Exit The King (Malthouse Theatre/ Belvoir). Julie was a core member of Anthill Theatre, with whom she performed in over thirty productions. Awards include: Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Play (Happy Days) and Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play (Exit The King); and a Green Room Award for Best Actress (Kids’ Stuff). Julie was the recipient of the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards’ 2009 Individual Award.
Bessie Holland (Magda)
Bessie Holland’s theatre credits include The Sovereign Wife (MTC NEON/Sisters Grimm); Blaque Showgirls (Malthouse Theatre); Summertime in the Garden of Eden (Griffin Theatre/Sisters Grimm); The Lower Depths (Ariette Taylor, fortyfivedownstairs); and a National tour of Cosí (HIT productions). Her screen credits include The Beautiful Lie directed by Peter Salmon (ABC) and Wentworth (FOXTEL, Fremantle Media) Seasons 2–6.
Sue Jones (Maria)
Sue Jones has appeared in a number of productions for Melbourne Theatre Company including Minnie and Liraz, Other Desert Cities, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Don Parties On, Death of a Salesman (Green Room nomination), Kid Stakes (Green Room Nomination), Life After George (Green Room nomination), Wet and Dry, Some Night in Julia Creek, and Macbeth (Explorations). For Malthouse Theatre/Playbox, she was seen in Butterflies of Kalamatan, Ibsen – The Greatest Man on Earth, God’s Last Acre, The Frail Man, and Night on Bald Mountain. At La Mama, Save Suvla Street, Ravages, Obsessive Behaviour in Small Spaces, No Worries, How Are You Feeling, Pieties, and Shadowlands. At the Stage Company in Adelaide, Sorry Sold Out, A Night in the Arms of Raeleen, The Perfectionist, and Travelling North, and at Monash University, The Seagull and The One Day of the Year. Most recently on television she was seen in The Time of Our Lives, Upper Middle Bogan, Jack Irish and The Cry.
Melita Jurisic (Bernadette)
Melita Jurisic has worked for many leading and alternative theatre companies throughout Australia in over 100 productions. She received the Inaugural Cladan Award for A Doll’s House, Green Room Awards for I Am A Miracle, Night on Bald Mountain, Danny & The Deep Blue Sea, Bali Adat and nominations for Picnic with Fatima, Mother Courage, King Lear, The Women of Troy and most recently for her portrayal of an 85 year old blind woman in John for Melbourne Theatre Company. Barrie Kosky invited her to perform at Vienna’s Schauspielhaus as the unanimously praised Medea. She has continued to perform in Europe to critical and public acclaim. Film performances include Mad Max Fury Road, The Sound of One Hand Clapping, The Tale of Ruby Rose which garnered her the International Critic’s Prize for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival, the Croatian films Transatlantic and Kotlovina and the Austrian film Murer-Anatomie eines Prozesses. She is also known for her potrayal of Dr. Magda in the television series The Flying Doctors and Dr. Eva in the ABC series Something in the Air. She is the singer/songwriter of the Viennese band METALYCÉE whose first album IT IS NOT was voted one of the ten best Austrian albums of the decade.
Emily Milledge (Adele)
Emily Milledge’s stage credits include The Story of O (MTC NEON/THE RABBLE); Antigone (Malthouse Theatre); The Wizard of Oz (Belvoir); The Good Person of Szechuan (Malthouse Theatre); La Cage Aux Folles (The Production Company); Therese Raquin (Dirty Pretty Theatre); Out of the Water (Red Stitch); and Carrie The Musical (Chapel off Chapel). She has worked closely with boundary-breaking theatre company THE RABBLE, with credits including Joan and Frankenstein (Malthouse Theatre) and Room of Regret (Melbourne International Arts Festival). Emily’s television appearances include Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Paper Giants II: Magazine Wars, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab and The Saddle Club, and she has appeared in numerous short films including the award-winning Tasty. Recently, Emily collaborated with artist James Newitt on the short feature A Plan for Escape which will premiere at Dark Mofo 2018.
Published on 28 August 2017