EMBERS by Campion Decent
Presented by HotHouse Theatre & Sydney Theatre Company
Winner of the 2007 Queensland Premier’s Literacy Award for Stage Script
"A toweringly important new Australian play that speaks to our hearts from the hearts of our countrymen." The Daily Telegraph
"The best things in this show, a great and emotionally powerful piece of investigative documentary theatre, are the traces it has of the people who were there." The Australian
"There were strings of fire. I’d say 50 to 60 metres long just racing across the ground. You know, 46 years fighting bloody fires I’ve never seen anything like it." – A firefighter
With Australia still reeling from the February 2009 fires, this play, based on the January 2003 fires in Victoria is a riveting expose of the courage and endurance of communities put to the test.
Overnight on 7 and 8 January, in the year 2003, a dry storm ignited over 80 fires in Victoria’s North East and Gippsland. From exhaustive interviews with residents of the region, Campion Decent has fashioned an extraordinary account of the fires; the heart-stopping tales of survival, awe-inspiring courage and spine-chilling evocations of the wave of heat that roars through pristine valleys – and the mountains of sandwiches volunteers anxiously prepared.
Gripping, lyrical, comically overwrought when it seems tragic, and deeply moving when all appears lost, Embers is the story of a fire – and the people who conquered it.
WHAT: Embers
WHERE: The Q Performing Arts Centre
WHEN: 16 – 19 September 2009
TICKETS: $27 – $47
BOOKINGS: Q Box Office on 02 62980290 or www.theq.net.au
