Skip to main content
A blonde woman wearing red coat with a washed woman in the background.

Julia
by Joanna Murray-Smith
Directed by Sarah Goodes

31 March – 20 May 2023

In the Drama Theatre

Sydney Theatre Company

Theatre

World Premiere

Ten years on from Julia Gillard’s speech that sent shockwaves around the world, Julia is an intimate and compelling insight into the person behind the public mask.

Not now, not ever

In 2012 Julia Gillard, Australia’s first female prime minister, gave a speech that sent shockwaves around the world.

Now, ten years later, one of Australia’s most esteemed and celebrated playwrights, Joanna Murray-Smith, brings the human story behind that speech to the stage.

Julia is an extraordinary new play that will see the glorious Justine Clarke (Children of the Sun) embody the life and career that led to the ‘misogyny speech’, in a phenomenal performance directed by Helpmann Award-winning Sarah Goodes (The Children).

This is both an intimate and compelling insight into the person behind the public mask, and a reflection on the experience of women in contemporary politics. Combining genuine excerpts from Gillard’s speech with Murray-Smith’s incredible dramatic imagination this play is also a thrilling coming together of history and art.

Around the world, we are seeing the most profound rollbacks to women’s rights legislation in two generations. At the same time, there have been encouraging strides forward in the representation of women in positions of power, both at home and abroad. In this climate, Julia is a rousing and energising reminder of where we’ve come from and an empowering imagining of the challenges yet to come.

Presented by Sydney Theatre Company and Canberra Theatre Centre

Artist Information

Writer Joanna Murray-Smith
Director Sarah Goodes
Designer Renée Mulder
Composer & Sound Designer Steve Francis

With
Justine Clarke
Jessica Bentley 

Other information

You may also like

UPU

7 – 10 May 2025

UPU is an exhilarating theatre experience featuring Oceanic performers from NZ, blending profound poetry, gripping storytelling and captivating performances to explore culture, identity and the Pacific Ocean’s rich voices.

  • Theatre

Elements of Freestyle

26 – 29 Jun 2025

In this adrenaline-fuelled explosion of extreme urban sports, dance, music and theatre, the Netherlands' ISH Dance Collective create breathtaking poetry.

  • Dance
  • Kids & Families
  • Theatre

Coriolanus

20 Jun – 19 Jul 2025

For the first time in 30 years, Bell Shakespeare presents one of Shakespeare’s most exhilarating political works, in the intimate surrounds of The Neilson Nutshell.

  • Theatre

Checking availability