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.