Adelaide Festival: Blue

It’s just me and the water.

Mark has always wanted to be a writer. His mum’s a writer too, and together they’d spend hours reading and writing in their garden. When Mark moves out of his childhood home and into his first share flat, he and his mum stay connected by exchanging letters. When Mark one day receives a letter with the news too painful to bear, he seeks solace in the sea – the source of his fondest yet most agonising memories.

Written by Balnaves Fellow, AACTA and Logie Award-winner and Kamilaroi man Thomas Weatherall, Blue is a breathtaking deep dive into the beauty, comedy, joy and sadness of growing up.

Following a hit premiere season at Belvoir St Theatre and coming to our stage as part of the 2024 Adelaide Festival, Weatherall’s captivating play paints a vivid picture of a young man’s life, coloured by tragedy, loss, and love.

Directed by Deborah Brown, Senior Artist for Bangarra Dance Theatre with video design by David Bergman, acclaimed for his ingenious film work on The Picture of Dorian Gray with set and lighting design by Jacob Nash and Chloe Ogilvie (both of At What Cost? success), this stunning production will, like Girls & Boys, provide the perfect vehicle for one of Australia’s most talented actors, Wiradjuri man Callan Purcell, recently seen as Aaron Burr in Hamilton.

“An impressive debut by a talented young artist who writes with a freshness and vulnerability.” – The Sydney Morning Herald

“Breathtaking visual transformations that move us beyond the capacity of words.” – Suzy Goes See