Visitors leave. Right? 

Sydney Harbor. January 1788. Seven Aboriginal leaders gather while a mysterious fleet of nawi (giant ships) amasses in the bay. As the vessels creep closer, the leaders face a fateful decision: send the strangers away or welcome them? Winner of the 2023 Sydney Theatre Awards for Best Mainstage Production and Best Ensemble, PAC NYC is proud to welcome The Visitors for its first international production. From Muruwari playwright Jane Harrison and acclaimed Quandamooka man director Wesley Enoch, this gripping, deeply researched drama captures one of the most pivotal and painful days in Australia’s history—while offering a sharp and funny portrait of how communities respond to change and the unknown.

Note: This performance includes infrequent coarse language, themes of racial violence, descriptions of violence, intergenerational trauma, and theatrical haze.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Jane Harrison is descended from the Muruwari people of NSW. Her first play, Stolen, had productions across Australia and toured internationally. She was co-winner of the 2002 RAKA Kate Challis Award for Stolen. Rainbow’s End has had numerous productions since its premiere in 2003 and won the 2012 Drovers Award for best touring production. Both Stolen and Rainbow’s End have been placed on secondary school curricula. The Visitors premiered at Sydney Festival in 2020 and won the Sydney Critics Award for Best New Australian Work for 2021. Her novel Becoming Kirrali Lewis won the 2014 Black & Write! Prize, and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. She published her novel The Visitors in 2023. She is the Festival Director of Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival (2016, 2019, 2022).

Wesley Enoch is a writer and director. He hails from Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island) and is a proud Quandamooka man. Wesley is the QUT Indigenous Chair of Creative Industries and is the newly appointed Chair of Creative Australia. Previously, Wesley has been the Artistic Director at Sydney Festival from 2017-2020, Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts and Ilbijerri Theatre Company, and the Associate Artistic Director at Belvoir Street Theatre, among others. Wesley has written and directed many iconic Indigenous theater productions. The 7 Stages of Grieving, which Wesley directed and co-wrote with Deborah Mailman, was first produced in 1995 and continues to tour both nationally and internationally. Others include The Sunshine Club for Queensland Theatre and a new adaptation of Medea by Euripides, titled Black Medea. His play The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table won the 2005 Patrick White Playwrights Award. In 2023, Wesley was named Sydney Theatre Company’s Patrick White Playwrights Fellow. In 2004, Wesley directed the original stage production of The Sapphires, which won the 2005 Helpmann Award for Best Play. In 2021, Wesley received the Dorothy Crawford Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession and the Industry at the AWGIES.

CREDITS

FUNDING + SUPPORT

Moogahlin Performing Arts is a leading First Peoples performing arts company that is co-located on Gadigal country in Redfern and on Ngemba country in Brewarrina, Australia. We play a vital role in the ecology of the Australian performing arts sector in First Peoples new work development and presentation, advocacy for First Peoples cultural arts, and employment and career pathways for our people. Moogahlin’s program has grown to include three key festivals, the Yellamundie National First Peoples Playwriting Festival, Baiame’s Nguungu (Creator’s Fish Traps) Festival in Brewarrina, and Koori Gras with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. The programs have produced acclaimed works including The Weekend by Henrietta Baird, which toured internationally to Aotearoa (New Zealand 2019). Moogahlin (Muu-garl-in) is a Yuin/Bundjalung word meaning to play, to fool about.

Sydney Theatre Company (STC) has been a major force in Australian drama since its establishment in 1978. The Company presents an annual season at its own Harbourside venues and as the resident theatre company of Sydney Opera House. Under the Artistic Direction of Kip Williams, STC produces works of scale and ambition that illuminate, entertain, and challenge. STC tours productions throughout Australia and internationally, playing annually to audiences of more than 300,000. STC has launched and fostered the theatre careers of many of Australia’s internationally renowned artists including Cate Blanchett, Wayne Blair, Toni Collette, Deborah Mailman, Tim Minchin and Hugo Weaving.

Performing Lines produces provocative contemporary performance by Australia’s most audacious independent artists and companies. We curate a portfolio of work that is propelled by pressing questions and new ways of seeing the world. We champion the unconventional, the marginal, the rebellious and the new. Our purpose is to champion risk and to ensure that the breadth and plurality of Australia’s creative potential is represented and celebrated. Performing Lines is led by Executive Producer Simon Wellington, and manages teams in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Hobart, with a network of producers and presenters around the country and the world.

Creative Australia is the Australian Government’s principal arts investment and advisory body.

Create NSW’s vision and mission is focused on growing and supporting bold and exciting arts and culture that engages the community and reflects the state’s rich diversity. Create NSW we’re committed to: growing, empowering and strengthening the arts, screen and culture sectors in the state of NSW Australia; delivering new, innovative and exciting arts and cultural services and experiences for the people of NSW; and embedding arts in the everyday.

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