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Artwork for Peggy Sue & Wiran’s Dream – A Double Bill
Artwork for Peggy Sue & Wiran’s Dream – A Double Bill
Artwork for Peggy Sue & Wiran’s Dream – A Double Bill
Peggy Sue & Wiran’s Dream – A Double Bill

1 — 3 May 2025

Southbank Theatre, The Lawler

Two new works in development, presented together in a single performance by Melbourne Theatre Company’s Deadly Creatives.

Full priced tickets $20. Blaktix $5.

Approx. 1 hour and 20 minutes, including an interval.

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About the Event

Peggy Sue (written by Amelia Jean O'Leary and Emma Salmon, in collaboration with Ella Clarke-King) follows the story line of Joan, a 23-year-old Blak woman who moves to a sharehouse in North Melbourne. This house acts as a portal for self-growth and discovery as well as a distilled representation of the settler colony. Though she is able to explore her sexuality and relationships, these freedoms are short-lived, and she must go through the fire to make her final decision.   

Wiran’s Dream (by Brodie Murray). An Indigenous story of brotherhood and sacrifice. Two cousins. Jack and Nathan. The cousins soon find out they have been selected to go down to an All-Boys private school in the city. They meet Mordy; the School’s first ever Aboriginal School Captain. 

Nathan, now a footy scholar, feels like he has finally found his place. However, for Jack, family secrets, homesickness and the cost of living between 2 worlds. Will it all be too much? He must decide where his loyalty lies. Boarding school or the bush. 

ABOUT DEADLY CREATIVES

Deadly Creatives is a free creative learning program for young First Nations people interested in the arts. The program's alumni, teaching artists and new participants all work together to explore ways of telling stories for the stage. Participants in the program also see shows and meet with industry professionals to spark their own creative ideas and connections to the wider industry. Peggy Sue and Wiran’s Dream are written and performed by the Deadly Creatives alumni.  

“We are the Deadly Creatives, a group of young theatre makers. We are the future of blak theatre.  We collaborate, share, learn, and yarn with one another. We support each other and tell stories together.” 

Program Partners
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Funding Partner

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Accessibility

  • Wheelchair Accessible

  • Hearing Assistance

Artwork for Amelia Jean O’Leary

Amelia Jean O’Leary

Writer/Sound Designer

Amelia Jean O’Leary (she/they/yinarr) is a proud First Nations Gamilaroi Yinarr from Northen New South Wales currently living in Naarm (Melbourne). Her dance practice is about human and spiritual experiencing. Through complexity and adversity, she finds ways to tell coded and poetically rich stories. Her dances are personal and personified from her multidisciplinary skills in theatre, film and sound design. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2021, O’Leary performed and created multiple works including Yinarr (Adelaide Fringe and Dancehouse); A Certain Mumble (Darebin Arts Speakeasy) and STAUNCH ASF (Melbourne Fringe), for which she was awarded Best Emerging Indigenous Artist at Melbourne Fringe 2023, and nominated for a Green Room Award for Pioneering Artistry: Breaking Ground. Amelia also choreographed One Day as part of Melbourne Theatre Company’s First Peoples Young Artists Program at Yirramboi Festival. O’Leary is the artist in residence at Abbotsford Convent and is currently developing multiple new works.

Artwork for Emma Salmon

Emma Salmon

Writer

Emma Salmon (she/her) is a Nyikina and Celtic artist born and based on Wurundjeri land in Fawkner. Her work spans writing, set and costume, stringmaking and weaving, illustration, installation and video. She was the scenic artist for The Whisper (Brodie Murray, 2024) has been a set and costume associate on Scar Trees and Blak in The Room (ILBIJERRI, 2024), and commissioned artist for 37 (Melbourne Theatre Company 2024-5). She has exhibited at Trocadero Projects and VCA Artspace, and is currently finishing a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drawing and Printmaking) at VCA. She co-wrote Peggy Sue and has been a part of Deadly Creatives since 2021. Her work is about telling the stories of her family, ancestry and Blak, Queer and Femme communities through shared dreaming, connection and spirit.

Artwork for Ella Clarke-King

Ella Clarke-King

Co-Writer/Assistant Director/Costume Designer

Ella Clarke-King (she/her) is a proud Kirrae Whurroung woman from the Eastern Marr Nation. Art and culture are central to Ella's sense of self, and she channels her creativity across various mediums including film making, visual art and performance. Ella is a 19-year-old Queer Koorie woman navigating the creative landscape, Ella strives to authentically represent her identity while making her mark in the artistic community. Ella Clarke-King has worked on works such as ‘One Day’ Melbourne Theatre Company, Directed by Nathan Maynard. Her solo Exhibition ‘Wang’a’nin’ show cased at Bowre Theatre, Art Installation/ videography ‘Trauma Within the Home’ and has worked as a Camera Assistant for productions with Sapphic Flicks and Sam Biddle. She is also studying at the University of Swinburne in a Bachelor (Honours) of Film & Television, which has provided an opportunity for her to direct, edit and write her short films ‘Paliin’ and ‘Bathroom Floor’.

Artwork for Phoebe Grainer

Phoebe Grainer

Director

Phoebe Grainer is a Kuku Djungan, Muluridji, Wakaman, Tagalaka, Kunjen, Warrgamay and Yindinji woman from Far North Queensland.
Phoebe is a graduate of NIDA with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Phoebe is a Creative Producer at Sweatshop Literacy Movement and the 2024 Red Room Poetry Fellow. As an actor, Phoebe’s performance credentials include: Black Cockatoo (Ensemble Theatre), Tiddas (La Boite Theatre), Saltbush (Insite Arts), Two Hearts (Kings Cross Theatre), Serpent’s Teeth (Kings Cross Theatre), Doing (Kings Cross Theatre) and Rainbow’s End (Darlinghurst Theatre). Last year, Phoebe was in the lead cast for SBS’ new TV Series While the Men are Away. Phoebe is the co-editor and sub-editor for Racism: Stories on Fear, Hate & Bigotry and Blacklight: Ten Years of First Nations Storytelling. Her writing has also appeared in SBS Voices, Red Room Poetry, Sweatshop Women and Povo: Stories on Class. In 2023, Phoebe was the recipient of the prestigious Dreaming Award. This year, Phoebe’s play Emu In The Sun will premiere with ILBIJERRI Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company. 

 

Artwork for Matisse Knight

Matisse Knight

Actor

Matisse Knight (she/her) is a proud Wiradjuri woman who works on Boon Wurrung and Wurunjeri Woi Wurrung. Matisse is known for her roles in Melbourne Theatre Company’s performance of ‘One Day’ (dir. Nathan Maynard) held at Yirramboi Festival in 2023, The Woman in ‘Bloom’ (dir. William Frost.) and her work with Ilbijerri Theatre Company in ‘The Score’ (dir. Kamara Bell-Wykes). Her directorial credits include ‘When Henry’ for UMMTA’s Sitzprobe and ‘The Word’ for St. Martins Youth Theatre.

Artwork for Jyden Brailey

Jyden Brailey

Actor

Jyden Brailey is a Tharawal, Yorta Yorta artist living in Naarm and an experienced performer in award winning shows (Soul of Possum by Brodie Murray). Jyden is a passionate leader and sees benefits in sharing stories and supporting others to share theirs through performance. He has supported the creative team behind Melbourne Theatre Company’s Cybec Electric writers program and also featured in ILLBIJERI Theatre Company’s Ensemble in productions such as Conversations with the Dead by Richard Frankland. Jyden has taken leadership roles in mentoring and supporting participants in the First Nations Young Artists Program at MTC and was an Assistant Producer on the presentation of Intertwined at MPavilion. Most recently Jyden has featured in Yirramboi shows One Day by MTC/Nathan Maynard and Alluvium by Stone Motherless Cold.

Artwork for Brodie Murray

Brodie Murray

Actor

Brodie Murray is a Wamba Wamba, Ngarindjerri and Scottish Australian writer/performer. Audiences have been responding to Brodie’s visual and emotive playwriting style since his debut at the Yirramboi Festival in 2021 with First Contact play, Soul of Possum. Brodie received the Melbourne Fringe Festival Best Emerging Indigenous Artist Award and Young Creatives Award in the same year for his coming of age play, Billy’s Choice. In 2022 as a Deadly Fringe Commission, he wrote The Whisper, inspired by his Nan’s story of survival in the 1940s (Melbourne Fringe 2022 and Fortyfivedownstairs 2024). Amplifying voices of Aboriginal Victoria, Brodie has achieved early career recognition. Highlights include the Creative Australia First Nations Emerging Career Development Award 2022, Victorian Young Achievers Award for the Arts 2023, Hannah Barry Memorial Award 2023, Finalist 2023 National NAIDOC Youth of the Year Award and being named Mr Vic NAIDOC 2023. Brodie co-authored Was and Will Be with Tracey Rigney and Tom Molyneux, published by Currency Press in 2024. Brodie has been a member of the MTC Deadly Creatives since 2019. He is a graduate of Aboriginal Performance at Waapa, and is a current student at the VCA (Bachelor of Fine Arts - Theatre).

Artwork for Tom Roach

Tom Roach

Lighting Designer

Artwork for Brodie Murray

Brodie Murray

Writer/Actor

Brodie Murray is a Wamba Wamba, Ngarindjerri and Scottish Australian writer/performer. Audiences have been responding to Brodie’s visual and emotive playwriting style since his debut at the Yirramboi Festival in 2021 with First Contact play, Soul of Possum. Brodie received the Melbourne Fringe Festival Best Emerging Indigenous Artist Award and Young Creatives Award in the same year for his coming of age play, Billy’s Choice. In 2022 as a Deadly Fringe Commission, he wrote The Whisper, inspired by his Nan’s story of survival in the 1940s (Melbourne Fringe 2022 and Fortyfivedownstairs 2024). Amplifying voices of Aboriginal Victoria, Brodie has achieved early career recognition. Highlights include the Creative Australia First Nations Emerging Career Development Award 2022, Victorian Young Achievers Award for the Arts 2023, Hannah Barry Memorial Award 2023, Finalist 2023 National NAIDOC Youth of the Year Award and being named Mr Vic NAIDOC 2023. Brodie co-authored Was and Will Be with Tracey Rigney and Tom Molyneux, published by Currency Press in 2024. Brodie has been a member of the MTC Deadly Creatives since 2019. He is a graduate of Aboriginal Performance at Waapa, and is a current student at the VCA (Bachelor of Fine Arts - Theatre).

Artwork for Matisse Knight

Matisse Knight

Director/Actor

Matisse Knight (she/her) is a proud Wiradjuri woman who works on Boon Wurrung and Wurunjeri Woi Wurrung. Matisse is known for her roles in Melbourne Theatre Company’s performance of ‘One Day’ (dir. Nathan Maynard) held at Yirramboi Festival in 2023, The Woman in ‘Bloom’ (dir. William Frost.) and her work with Ilbijerri Theatre Company in ‘The Score’ (dir. Kamara Bell-Wykes). Her directorial credits include ‘When Henry’ for UMMTA’s Sitzprobe and ‘The Word’ for St. Martins Youth Theatre.

Artwork for Jasper Quinn

Jasper Quinn

Sound Designer/Actor

Jasper is a proud Wiradjuri musician, singer, songwriter and performer. Jasper is a recent high school graduate, who has loved performing since he was young. He is passionate about the arts and in particular the music and sound industry. He has had the opportunity to be mentored in aspects of the sound industry by professional sound designer and composer James Henry. Jasper regularly creates his own work – from lyrics through to music and enjoys sharing them with an audience. Jasper performed in One Day, directed by Nathan Maynard in 2023.

Artwork for Jyden Brailey

Jyden Brailey

Actor

Jyden Brailey is a Tharawal, Yorta Yorta artist living in Naarm and an experienced performer in award winning shows (Soul of Possum by Brodie Murray). Jyden is a passionate leader and sees benefits in sharing stories and supporting others to share theirs through performance. He has supported the creative team behind Melbourne Theatre Company’s Cybec Electric writers program and also featured in ILLBIJERI Theatre Company’s Ensemble in productions such as Conversations with the Dead by Richard Frankland. Jyden has taken leadership roles in mentoring and supporting participants in the First Nations Young Artists Program at MTC and was an Assistant Producer on the presentation of Intertwined at MPavilion. Most recently Jyden has featured in Yirramboi shows One Day by MTC/Nathan Maynard and Alluvium by Stone Motherless Cold.

Artwork for Isobel Morphy-Walsh

Isobel Morphy-Walsh

Dramaturg

Isobel Morphy-Walsh, a proud Nirim Baluk woman from the Taun Wurrung (Taungurung) people, is a multidisciplinary artist working across visual and performance art. She is also a weaver, curator, producer, activist writer and educator. Isobel has spent her life working with her community and our cultures with a particular emphasis on history, culture, country, and its importance today. Isobel comes from a family of storytellers and weavers and continues both of those practices in her own contemporary and creation storytelling, singing and dramatic performance. In 2023, she launched her first production combining her family’s skills in song, dance and story, Gunga-na Dhum Nganinju (The stories we hold tightly), as part of YIRRAMBOI Festival. Her first solo play Gunawarra Recreation was premiered in 2024 as part of the Ilbijerri Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre company’s presentation of Blak In the Room.  She is currently working at Melbourne Theatre Company as the Resident Dramaturg. Many a yarn, spoken word and song can be heard in her presence. 

Artwork for Tom Roach

Tom Roach

Lighting Designer

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The Lawler

140 Southbank Boulevard

Southbank, Victoria 3006