In a dirt-dry town in rural Australia, a shot shatters the still night. A mother and her daughters have just welcomed home the man of the house – with a crack in the shins and a bullet in the neck. The only issue now is disposing of the body.
Triggered into thrilling motion by an act of revenge, The Bleeding Tree is rude, rhythmical and irreverently funny. Imagine a murder ballad blown up for the stage, set against a deceptively deadly Aussie backdrop, with three fierce females fighting back.
With his brutal, and brutally funny, wordplay, Angus Cerini won the 2014 Griffin Award for The Bleeding Tree. Our own Lee Lewis is looking forward to getting her directorial hands exceedingly dirty.
Winner Best New Australian Work, Sydney Theatre Awards
Winner Griffin Award, 2014
Winner Best Play, Helpmann Awards, 2016
Winner NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, 2016
Winner Excellence in Writing for Australian Theatre, Australian Writer’s Guild Awards, 2016
Winner Best Ensemble, Best Writing for the Australian Stage, Best Production, Best Director, Green Room Awards, 2019
Nominee Best Performer, Green Room Awards, 2019
Director Lee Lewis
Designer Renée Mulder
Composer Steve Toulmin
Lighting Designer Verity Hampson
Stage Manager Edwina Guinness
With Paula Arundell, Airlie Dodds, Shari Sebbens
Previews 31 July, 1, 3, 4 August
Season 7 August – 5 September
Performance Times
Monday – Friday 7pm
Saturday 2pm and 7pm
Meet the Artists 11 August
Run Time
75 minutes, no interval
[Images by Brett Boardman]
“Lee Lewis’s great and complex production… They say it takes a village to raise a child. This excellent production suggests that it also takes a village to kill a bastard” The Australian
“Cerini’s writing exists in an almost abstract space — his use of language is sharp and evocative, using playful rhymes along the way — but it’s all narrative-driven, and the narrative structure of this piece is perfect, right down to the quiet, creeping ending.” ★★★★ Crikey
“Director Lee Lewis, designer Renee Mulder, composer Steve Toulmin and lighting designer Verity Hampson fashion a visually striking and aurally rich production around Cerini’s words. Arundell, Sebbens and Dodds… are spellbinding as his outback Furies.” Sydney Morning Herald
“bruising, bold and brilliant…..The performances in The Bleeding Tree are pitch perfect.” Australian Stage
“THE BLEEDING TREE addresses the issue with passion, compassion, irreverence and gravity that hopefully will have audiences going away with the feeling that they have not only seen a great piece of drama but also prompt them to think about the society in which they live.” Broadway World
“Lee Lewis, the Director, takes hold of this contemporary gothic tale of self defence and revenge and hurls it out into the world onto the SBW Stage with a fearsome sense of this is a truth you all may have only dreamt about in the unconscious swirls of your deepest, darkest nightmares, but for some is a wish fulfilment of a lifesaving confrontation.” Kevin Jackson
“As the mother, Arundell commands the stage, alternately self-possessed when cornered and giddy with relief at the end of their suffering.” ★★★★ The Guardian
“It’s liberation through violence, it’s women as anti-heroes, and it’s thrillingly subversive and deeply affecting.” Time Out
Developed with the assistance of Playwriting Australia.
@griffintheatre