burning
(2001)
Produced: Griffin Theatre, 2001; Geelong Production Company and Mad As Us Play Professional Theatre, 2013
Awards: 2001 Griffin Playwriting Award
Published: Australian Script Centre, Collection #3,2001
June Matthews, an ex-dancer, and her history professor husband, Stephen, return to her grandmother’s large stone house by the sea immediately after the publication of Stephen’s latest, and most controversial book. June finds the skeleton of what turns out to be a 14-year-old Irish servant girl, Lizzie, from the previous century. Who is she, what does she mean to June?
REVIEWS
“Yields the shadows of the country’s fraught colonial inheritance … fascinating and beautifully written.”
Laura Ginters, Review, 2001
“A true gem … starkly written, highly nuanced work ... an incendiary experience, not to be missed.”
Katrina Schwarz, Drum Media, 2001