David Williamson’s 1971 classic The Removalists will be staged by the Melbourne Theatre Company next year as a direct response to several high-profile killings of women in Victoria.
The MTC artistic director, Anne-Louise Sarks, said she went looking for works about violence against women in the wake of the alleged murders of three women – Samantha Murphy, Hannah McGuire and Rebecca Young – in and around Ballarat earlier this year. The city has become a key focus amid a national debate on ending violence against women, with the federal government agreeing to a $4.7bn plan over the next five years to address the “national crisis”.
The Removalists opens as two sisters enter a police station to report that one is being abused by her husband, encountering a chauvinistic sergeant and an idealistic new recruit.
Sarks described it as “an exploration of power and masculinity, that is pointing to a violence inherent in our society”.
“For a debut play, it is incredibly well-crafted. It is such a great piece of writing,” Sarks said. “It is distressing that this work was necessary in 1971, and that it is even more necessary now.”
The new production will star Steve Mouzakis as the sergeant, and will still be set in the 1970s, but Sarks said she was working with Williamson to update it slightly.
“David has been really open and very excited about bringing this work back to life,” she said, adding she also wanted to “celebrate the Australian canon, which doesn’t get a lot of airtime”.
“We’re terrible at looking back at our theatre history and elevating it. The Americans and the English are much better at that. So this felt like an exciting opportunity.”
The MTC’s 2025 season includes two high-profile shows direct from Broadway. Kimberly Akimbo, the big winner at this year’s Tony awards, is a musical about a girl who ages four times as fast as anyone else; the MTC production will star Casey Donovan and Christie Whelan Browne. Mother Play: A Play in Five Evictions, which was nominated for four Tonys, will star Sigrid Thornton as a formidable matriarch who tries to steer the lives of her children. It will be the first time it has been staged outside of the US.
And fresh from opening in the UK, MTC will stage Never Have I Ever, a comedy written by Guilty Feminist podcaster Deborah Frances-White and set around two couples as they play a drinking game that reveals some exposing truths.
Other productions include an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s novel Rebecca, starring Pamela Rabe, Nikki Shiels and Bert LaBonté; and a staging of Much Ado About Nothing starring Fayssal Bazzi and Alison Bell.
Eight of the 13 shows in the MTC’s 2025 season are Australian. These include Dying: A Memoir, based on the memoir of author Cory Taylor, which was published in 2016 just before her death from terminal brain cancer. Starring Genevieve Morris, it will be adapted by author Benjamin Law, a close friend of Taylor.
There is also the new play from acclaimed Counting and Cracking playwright S Shakthidharan, titled The Wrong Gods; and The Black Woman of Gippsland, written by Sunshine Super Girl and Big Name, No Blankets playwright Andrea James, which is based on real events and set on James’ grandmother’s Country.
The announcement of the 2025 program comes after the success of Nathan Maynard’s AFL play 37, which will return to the MTC early next year after a hugely successful run, which Sarks described as a “rare decision”. But, she said, the successes of 2024 productions 37, Julia and English had shown Australian audiences would turn out for new shows as much, if not more, than proven classics.
“There is this common idea that the classic plays will do the best. What we’re actually proving is that new Australian works are what audiences are most thrilled by,” she said. “I think the climate has changed, the audience has changed and we are embracing that.”
In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org
