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Artwork for Julia
Artwork for Julia
Artwork for Julia
Julia

31 May — 13 Jul 2024

Southbank Theatre, The Sumner

A rich, revealing portrait of a famously private figure. Julia represents much more than the individual who became Australia’s first female prime minister. It’s a portrait of us, right now.

Approx. 1 hour and 30 minutes with no interval

LIMITED AVAILABILITY
Seating is strictly limited – Standing Room tickets may be available at box office prior to each performance. See here for more info. 

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This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

‘Justine Clarke brilliantly becomes Gillard in this heroic performance.’

The Sydney Morning Herald
This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

‘An intoxicating and fascinating experience.’

Time Out

ABOUT THE SHOW

It lasted a mere 15 minutes, but the ripples from Julia Gillard’s famed ‘misogyny speech’ are felt a decade later. Now a peerless team of the country’s finest theatre makers tease apart the many threads that led to this pivotal moment in Australian political life.

Julia is a rich, revealing portrait of a famously private figure. From her youth as an optimistic advocate for change through to the cruel and punishing attacks she withstood as she grew in power, Julia represents much more than the individual who became Australia’s first female prime minister. It’s a portrait of us, right now.

Written with impeccable insight by the legendary Joanna Murray-Smith (Berlin), directed by Helpmann Award-winning Sarah Goodes (Sunday) and performed by the phenomenal Justine Clarke and Jessica Bentley of the original cast, this acclaimed Sydney Theatre Company and Canberra Theatre Centre co-production saw audiences clamouring for standing-room tickets during its premiere run in 2023. 

Now Julia arrives in the town Prime Minister Gillard called home throughout her political term, at a moment when women’s rights around the world are under threats new and old, to ask how far we’ve come.


A Sydney Theatre Company and Canberra Theatre Centre production
STC POS    CTC wfriph

Accessibility

  • Wheelchair Accessible

  • Hearing Assistance

  • Audio Described

  • Tactile Tour

  • Open Captioning

  • Closed Captioning

  • Auslan Interpreted

Performance Type Performance Date(s)
Audio Described
by Vision Australia 		Saturday 22 June at 2pm
Tuesday 25 June at 6.30pm
Tactile Tour
at venue 		Saturday 22 June at 2pm (Tactile tour commences at 1pm)
Open Captioning
via screen 		Saturday 29 June at 2pm
Closed Captioning
via GoTheatrical App 		Saturday 29 June at 2pm
Auslan Interpreted
by Auslan Stage Left 		Tuesday 2 July at 6.30pm
Artwork for Jessica Bentley

Jessica Bentley

Young Woman

Jessica Bentley graduated from NIDA in 2022 and is making her debut with Melbourne Theatre Company. Her previous theatre credits include An ox stand on my tongue (Belvoir 25A); Julia (Sydney Theatre Company with Canberra Theatre Centre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Zen Zen Zo); A Streetcar Named Desire (Red Line Productions). She has also starred in short films including Kill Me Thrice and Some of Her Parts.

Current as of May 2024. 

Artwork for Justine Clarke

Justine Clarke

Julia

Justine Clarke is an award-winning actor, author and singer who returns to Melbourne Theatre Company following Trelawney of the Wells (with Sydney Theatre Company). Other theatre credits include Girls & Boys (STCSA); Muriel’s Wedding: The Musical, Children of the Sun, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, The Wonderful World of Dissocia, Reunion & a Kind of Alaska, Hedda Gabler, The Man with Five Children, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Herbal Bed, Stiffs (Sydney Theatre Company); Hedda Gabler (BAM Festival Brooklyn); Live Acts on Stage (Griffin Theatre Company); Murderer (Karnak Playhouse); The Sound of Music (Regent Theatre). Film credits include Red Dog: True Blue, A Month of Sundays, Healing, The Water Diary, Look Both Ways, Japanese Story, Danny Deckchair, Bootmen, Blackrock, Turning April, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. TV credits include Come Fly With Me, Hungry Ghosts, Tangle, Dead Lucky, Love My Way, Play School. She won an ASTRA Award for her role in Tangle, and awards at Vladivostok Film Festival and Mar Del Plata Film Festival for Look Both Ways.

Current as of May 2024. 

Artwork for Joanna Murray-Smith

Joanna Murray-Smith

Writer

Joanna Murray-Smith is an award-winning playwright and novelist. Her work has been translated in over two dozen languages and been produced all over the world, including on the West End, Broadway and at the Royal National Theatre in London. Melbourne Theatre Company has produced many of her plays including Berlin, Switzerland, Three Little Words, True Minds, Pennsylvania Avenue, Songs for Nobodies, The Gift, Rockabye, The Female of the Species, Ninety, Bombshells, and Honour. Other plays include Dark River for the National Theatre of Portugal, L’Apartement, American Song, Day One – A Hotel – Evening, Fury, Rapture, Nightfall, Redemption, Flame, Love Child, Atlanta and Angry Young Penguins. She has also adapted Hedda Gabler (State Theatre Company South Australia); Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage for Sir Trevor Nunn (Coventry/London); A Doll’s House and Uncle Vanya (Ensemble Theatre).

Current as of May 2024. 

Sarah-Goodes.jpg

Sarah Goodes

Director

Director Sarah Goodes returns to Melbourne Theatre Company after the sold-out productions of Sunday and Cyrano. She also worked on The Sound Inside, Home, I’m Darling, Cosi (with Sydney Theatre Company), Golden Shield, Arbus & West, Astroman, A Doll’s House: Part 2, The Children (with Sydney Theatre Company), Three Little Words and John. Sarah's other directorial credits include Julia (with Canberra Theatre Centre), The Hanging, Disgraced, Orlando, Battle of Waterloo, Switzerland, The Effect, Vere (with STCSA), The Splinter and Edward Grant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness (Sydney Theatre Company); Grace (Red Stich Actors’ Theatre); The Weekend and The Sugar House (Belvoir). She also directed the sell-out production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf for Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre. Sarah was Resident Director at Sydney Theatre Company from 2012-2016 and the Artistic Associate Director at Melbourne Theatre Company from 2016-2020. She has won numerous awards including three Helpmann Awards for The Children.

Current as of May 2024. 

Renee-Mulder.jpg

Renée Mulder

Designer

Renée Mulder is an award-winning set and costume designer. Her theatre design credits include Is God Is, Prima Facie, Arbus and West, Home, I’m Darling (Melbourne Theatre Company); The Bleeding Tree, The Boys, Dogged, Prima Facie, Superheroes (Griffin Theatre Company); The Pigeons (Griffin Independent); A Hoax (Griffin Theatre Company/La Boite); Rice (Griffin Theatre Company/Queensland Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Bell Shakespeare); As You Like It, Ruben Guthrie, I Love You, Bro (La Boite); Gaslight (New Theatricals); An Octoroon, Boy Swallows Universe, Fat Pig, Mouthpiece, Nearer the Gods, Return to the Dirt, Sacre Bleu! (Queensland Theatre); The Seagull, The Importance of Being Earnest, Julia, Banging Denmark, Battle of Waterloo, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Black is the New White, Dance Better at Parties, Grand Horizons, Hamlet: Prince of Skidmark, In a Heart Beat, The Long Way Home (Sydney Theatre Company). Renée was design director at Queensland Theatre from 2010-2021.

Current as of May 2024. 

Artwork for Alexander Berlage

Alexander Berlage

Lighting Designer

Alexander Berlage is a multi-award-winning director and lighting designer making his debut with Melbourne Theatre Company. His design credits include The Importance of Being Earnest, Julia (with Canberra Theatre Centre), Hubris & Humiliation, RBG: Of Many, One, Lord of the Flies, Lethal Indifference, Cloud Nine (Sydney Theatre Company); Son (Circa Cairns); Dance Nation (Belvoir/STCSA); Orpheus and Eurydice (Opera Queensland/Opera Australia/Circa). Directing credits include Son (Circa Cairns); Let the Right One In (Darlinghurst Theatre Company); A Streetcar Named Desire, Hand to God, there will be a climax (Old Fitz Theatre); Young Frankenstein, American Psycho, Cry-Baby (Hayes Theatre); Gloria (Outhouse Theatre Co/Seymour Centre). He has won numerous awards including Sydney Theatre Awards for Best Direction of a Musical and Best Lighting Design for American Psycho and Best Direction of a Musical and Best Production of a Musical for Cry-Baby. His critically acclaimed 2023 production of A Streetcar Named Desire won four Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Independent Production and Best Direction of an Independent Production.

Current as of May 2024. 

Steve Francis

Steve Francis

Composer & Sound Designer

As composer and sound designer for theatre, Steve Francis has worked for Australia’s leading theatre companies, both main stage and independent. For Melbourne Theatre Company his work includes The Sound Inside, The Children, The Weir and The Sublime. He has also created work for Adelaide Festival, Sydney Festival, Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir, Bell Shakespeare, Queensland Theatre, State Theatre Company South Australia, Griffin Theatre Company, Sport for Jove and Legs on the Wall. Recent productions include Baleen Moondjan, Vigil, The Weekend, Boy Swallows Universe, Appropriate, Cursed, No Pay No Way, Beauty Queen of Leanne and Switzerland. As a composer Steve has created thirteen scores for Bangarra Dance Theatre. Most recently Wudjang, Not The Past, Sandsong and Bennelong. He has won two Helpmann awards for Original Score with two nominations for Sound Design. Steve has also won two Sydney Theatre Awards for Best Music or Sound. 

Current as of May 2024. 

Artwork for Susie Henderson

Susie Henderson

Video Designer

Susie Henderson is a video designer and editor who graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Technical Theatre and Stage Management) from NIDA. Her video design credits include Julia (with Canberra Theatre Centre), The Lifespan of a Fact (Sydney Theatre Company); The Weekend (Belvoir); Beetle (Legs On The Wall); Black Sun Blood Moon (Critical Stages); Wherever She Wanders (Griffin Theatre Company); Chop Chef (Blush Opera). Video editor credits include Dracula, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Sydney Theatre Company); The Picture of Dorian Grey (Micheal Cassel Group/Sydney Theatre Company). Susie was also a video associate on That Was Friday (House of Sand) and Sylvia (The Australian Ballet) and video systems and content designer on Stop Girl (Belvoir) and The Wharf Revue: Good Night and Good Luck (Sydney Theatre Company).

Current as of May 2024. 

Artwork for Charley Allanah

Charley Allanah

Assistant Director

Charley Allanah is a director, performer, and writer and co-artistic director of House of Sand. Her directorial credits include Welcome the Bright World, The Talk of Angels (State Theatre Company South Australia); That Was Friday, The Split, all h0urs, REVOLT. SHE SAID. REVOLT AGAIN., (House of Sand); Trans Scripts (Paul Lucas Productions); Titus Andronicus, Mother Courage (Adelaide College of Arts). She was Assistant Director on Cosi Fan Tutte (Opera Australia) and Maggie Stone (State Theatre Company South Australia). As an actor she has appeared in Triple X (Sydney Theatre Company/Queensland Theatre) and King Lear (State Theatre Company South Australia). Her play The House Collector had a staged reading at KXT Storytellers, and new musical Must Go On (with composer Nick Delatovic) is in development with Canberra Theatre Centre. Charley is currently LGBTQIA+ Co-Chair of the MEAA Equity Diversity Committee, and a proud lifelong MEAA Equity member.

Current as of May 2024. 

Artwork for Jennifer White

Jennifer White

Voice & Dialect Coach

Jennifer White is a dialect and voice coach based in Sydney who works on local and international film, television, theatre and musicals. She returns to Melbourne Theatre Company following her work on Solomon and Marian. Further theatre credits include RBG: Of Many, One, On the Beach, Julia (with Canberra Theatre Centre), Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, A Raisin in the Sun, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Top Coat, All My Sons, August: Osage County, Tot Mom, True West (Sydney Theatre Company); The Wolves, My Brilliant Career, The Drover’s Wife, Mortido (Belvoir). Film and TV credits include Mortal Kombat, Carmen, Seriously Red, I Am Woman, Peter Rabbit, the Netflix series Stateless, Bali 2002, A Place to Call Home, Packed to the Rafters. Musical credits include West Side Story (Opera Australia), Chicago (Crossroads Live), In the Heights (Sydney Opera House). Jennifer was a tutor at NIDA for 10 years.

Current as of May 2024. 

Artwork for Caroline Craig

Caroline Craig

Understudy

Caroline Craig is an acclaimed and multi-award-winning stage, screen and voice actor. Her extensive theatre credits include starring roles with Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, Griffin Theatre Company and Bell Shakespeare, amongst many others. In 2023, she appeared in Suzie Miller’s internationally acclaimed stage drama, Prima Facie, for the State Theatre Company of South Australia.  Her screen credits include roles in some of Australia’s best-loved television drama series, including the phenomenal crime franchise, Underbelly, which she also narrated across three series. Her role as Sergeant Tess Gallagher on Australia’s longest-running police drama series, Blue Heelers (Seven Network), made her a household name. Caroline has also voiced the primetime factual series: Medical Emergency ICU, the Spotlight series and Murder Uncovered (Nine). She also narrated the Nine Network series Missing Persons Investigations. 

Current as of May 2024. 

Learn more about Julia

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The Sumner

140 Southbank Boulevard

Southbank, Victoria 3006