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The Shiralee By D’Arcy Niland
Adapted for the stage by Kate Mulvany
Directed by Jessica Arthur

6 October – 22 November 2025

In the Drama Theatre

Sydney Theatre Company

Theatre

Bathed in the golden light of an outback sunset, audiences will be swept away into a story as beautiful as the landscape in this adaptation of a classic Australian story. 

A love song to the open road

The Australian epic The Shiralee comes to the stage for the first time, adapted by Kate Mulvany, in a ranging and poetic story of life and love on the margins. 

Macauley is a rugged swagman who roams the highways and byways of mid-century Australia, while Macauley’s young daughter Buster lives with her separated mother in a neglectful home in Sydney. When Macauley discovers Buster’s circumstances he takes her on the road with him, despite his hesitations around fatherhood. 

Hot on the heels of the national sensation The Dictionary of Lost Words, director Jessica Arthur returns with a spectacular cast featuring Mulvany herself, Josh McConville, Aaron Pedersen and Ziggy Resnick, in this new play about a father-daughter bond that blooms in a harsh and unforgiving world.

A Sydney Theatre Company production
 

Director Jessica Arthur
Designer Jeremy Allen
Lighting Designer Trent Suidgeest
Composer & Sound Designer Clemence Williams
Dramaturg Kip Williams
Assistant Director Guy Simon
Fight Director Tim Dashwood

With

Stephen Anderson
Paul Capsis
Josh McConville
Lucia Mastrantone
Kate Mulvany
Aaron Pedersen
Ziggy Resnick
Catherine Văn-Davies

Plan your visit

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