THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING LEAR & HIS THREE DAUGHTERS

William Shakespeare

Eamon Flack

Eamon Flack is the Artistic Director of Belvoir St Theatre. He was born in Singapore and grew up in Singapore, Darwin, Cootamundra and Brisbane. He trained as an actor at WAAPA from 2001 to 2003 and has since worked as a director and writer around Australia and internationally, from the Tiwi Islands to Sri Lanka, London and New York. 

His directing credits for Belvoir include: Counting and Cracking (with Associate Director S. Shakthidharan, Helpmann Award for Best Play and Best Direction of a Play), The Jungle and the Sea (co-directed with S. Shakthidharan, Sydney Theatre Award for Best Play), The Master and Margarita, Angels in America (Helpmann Award for Best Play), August: Osage County (Sydney Theatre Awards for Best Director and Best Show), The Glass Menagerie (Helpmann Award for Best Play), Tommy Murphy’s Packer & Sons, Rita Kalnejais’s Babyteeth, Alana Valentine’s Wayside Bride (co-directed with Hannah Goodwin), Tom Wright’s adaptation of Brecht’s Life of Galileo, Eamon’s own adaptations of Helen Garner’s The Spare Room, Hendrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, and Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Ivanov (Sydney Theatre Awards Best Production and Best Director), as well as Into the Woods, The Rover, The Blind Giant is Dancing, As You Like It, and Beckett’s The End. Other directing credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bob Presents/B Sharp) and Wulamanayuwi and the Seven Pamanui by Jason de Santis (Darwin Festival). 

His writing and adaptation credits include: Associate Writer of S. Shakthidharan’s Counting and Cracking (Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, the Victorian Literary Prize and the Victorian Premier’s Award for Drama, Helpmann for Best New Work), co-writer with S. Shakthidharan of The Jungle and the Sea (Victorian Premier’s Award for Drama, Sydney Theatre Awards for Best New Work); Helen Garner’s The Spare Room; a stage adaptation of Christina Stead’s The Man Who Loved Children; Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Ivanov, Gorky’s Summerfolk, Sophocles’ Antigone and Ibsen’s Ghosts; co-adapter with Leah Purcell of Ruby Langford Ginibi’s memoir Don’t Take Your Love To Town; and co-deviser of Beautiful One Day with artists from ILBIJERRI, version 1.0, and the community of Palm Island. 

 For orchestral concert he has adapted and directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream alongside Mendelssohn’s score for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Belvoir St Theatre conducted by Simone Young, and directed and co-created Beethoven and Bridgetower with Anna Goldsworthy, Rita Dove and Richard Tognetti for the Australian Chamber Orchestra. 

Ahunim Abebe

Peter Carroll

Peter’s distinguished career has spanned over 90 productions. He continues to work in musical theatre, new Australian texts and the classics. For Belvoir, Peter has appeared in The Cherry Orchard, Life of Galileo, An Enemy of The People, Mark Colvin’s Kidney, Twelfth Night, The Great Fire, Seventeen, A Christmas Carol, Oedipus Rex, Old Man, The Book of Everything, Happy Days, Hamlet, The Blind Giant is Dancing, The Tempest, The Chairs and Stuff Happens. His other theatre credits include The Tempest, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Mary Stuart, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Sydney Theatre Company); Krapp’s Last Tape (State Theatre Company of South Australia/MONA FOMO tour); Girl from the North Country (GWB Entertainment), Last Man Standing, Into The Woods, Sweeney Todd (Melbourne Theatre Company), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (TML Enterprises); Night on Bald Mountain (Malthouse Theatre); and No Man’s Land (Queensland Theatre Company/Sydney Theatre Company). Peter’s film credits include The Power of Dog, Sleeping Beauty, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Crazy Rich Asians, Happy Feet, Black and White. His various television credits includeThe Moth Effect, Aftertaste, The Letdown, Bloom, Rake, Grass Roots, Diamond of Jeru, Changi, The Farm, Farscape. Peter has won many awards including Green Room Awards, a Helpmann Award, a Sydney Theatre Critics’ Circle Award, an Honorary Doctorate of Creative Arts and a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Performer in a Supporting Role (2022). Peter is the recipient of the Media Arts & Entertainment Alliance’s Lifetime Achievement Award; and he continues to be a proud supporter of the union.

Tom Conroy

For Belvoir, Tom’s credits include The Master & Margarita, Tell Me I’m Here, My Brilliant Career, Ghosts, Jasper Jones, Mortido, Mother Courage and Her Children, and Small and Tired. Tom’s other theatre credits include 1984, Hay Fever, Spring Awakening (Sydney Theatre Company); The Mousetrap (John Frost/Crossroads Live national tour); The Wider Earth (Queensland Theatre Company/Sydney Festival and 2022 Tour); Cock (Melbourne Theatre Company/La Boite); Romeo and Juliet (State Theatre Company of South Australia); Moth (Malthouse Theatre/Arena Theatre Company); Romeo and Juliet (Bell Shakespeare); Land & Sea (Brink Productions). His screen work includes Bump on Stan and Hamlet for Bell Shakespeare/ABC Splash Content. Tom’s performance in Something Natural But Very Childish (La Mama) garnered him a Green Room Award for Best Male Performer in Independent Theatre. He is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts.

Charlotte Friels

Charlotte is a recent NIDA graduate, who has since gone on to work in theatre and film. Her theatre credits include playing Drury in Goldilocks, Lady Anne in Richard III and Dunyasha in The Cherry Orchard for NIDA, and her film credits include The Dressmaker by Jocelyn Moorhouse, Nitram by Justin Kurzel and Respect the Kink.

Colin Friels

Raj Labade

Raj Labade will star as ‘Sebastian’ in the highly anticipated Amazon Prime series, The Office: Australia. In 2023, Raj worked in the STC/State Theatre production Dictionary of Lost Words, and Griffin Theatre production Sex Magick, as well as the SBS series Appetite. In 2022, Raj starred in the Belvoir production Tell Me I’m Here, the acclaimed Belvoir 25a production Never Closer and Performing Lines’ Mary Stuart.. At 17, Raj began his professional career as ‘Lewis’ in the Netflix feature film Back of the Net and, at 18, was accepted into the illustrious Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) course at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). Whilst at WAAPA, Raj was the recipient of multiple prestigious awards; the 2020 Speech and Drama Teachers Association Poetry Prize, the 2021 Vice Chancellor’s Shakespeare Award of ‘Best Production’ for his performance of Hamlet and the 2021 Leslie Anderson Award for Best Graduating Actor in his final showcase performance.  In 2023, Raj was named one of the Casting Guild of Australia’s Rising Stars.

Brandon McClelland

Brandon graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 2012. Brandon’s theatre credits include: Wayside Bride, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, and Packer & Sons, with Belvoir; The Deep Blue Sea, A Cheery Soul, Saint Joan, Three Sisters, The Present (Broadway Season), A Midsummers Night’s Dream, The Golden Age, The Present, Suddenly Last Summer, and M.Rock, with Sydney Theatre Company; Girl in the Machine, and Flight Paths, with National Theatre of Parramatta; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, with Ensemble; Little Borders, with Old 505; Fracture, with New Ghosts Theatre Company; and A Town Named Warboy, with ATYP.

Brandon’s film credits include, Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale, Roger Pulvers’ Star Sand, James Vanderbilt’s Truth, and Darby Deck’s short films Waking Moon and Walk Right In. His television credits include Significant Others, The Moth Effect, Doctor Doctor, The Other Guy, Black Comedy, Operation: Buffalo, Here Come the Habibs!, Love Child, Anzac Girls,and Devil’s Playground. Brandon can most recently be seen in Fremantle Media’s Totally Completely Fine as ‘Hendrix’. He is also a founding member and performer with comedy troupe ‘The United States of Kensington’. Brandon was twice-nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Mainstage Production from the Sydney Theatre Awards for Packer & Sons and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. He also received a 2015 Logie Award nomination for Most Outstanding Newcomer, was shortlisted for the 2015 Heath Ledger scholarship, and won The Equity Award for an Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series, both for Anzac Girls.

Sukhbir Singh Walia (Sunny)

Sukhbir Singh Walia (more commonly known as Sunny S. Walia) is an Indian Australian actor based in Melbourne. He returns to Belvoir’s Counting and Cracking having previously been part of the ensemble on their 2022 UK tour.

Walia made his television debut in Apple TV’s Shantaram, taking on the character of Sub Inspector Chavan Sharma opposite Charlie Hunnam. His other television credits include SBS series Swift Street, Stan’s Bad Behaviour and AMC’s Preacher. Sunny also plays the recurring role of Sasha McLain in Amazon/Network 10’s Neighbours.

Feature film credits include the award winning Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism directed by Nick Kosakis, Mark Williams Blacklight opposite Liam Neeson and recently wrapped Jonathan Hensleigh’s Ice Road 2: Road to the Sky again opposite Liam Neeson and Michael Shank’s Together opposite Dave Franco and Alison Brie.

Sunny was the recipient of the 2020 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Pitch award. He is trained as a rifleman in the Australian Army Reserves and is fluent in Punjabi and Hindi. Sunny is proud to be part of the South Asian diaspora in Australia and continues to work in bringing strong, leading South Asian characters to our stage and screens both locally and internationally.

He is represented by Natalie Simpson at Artist Management Australia.

Based in: Melbourne Australia

Alison Whyte

Charles Wu

Charles Wu is one of Australia’s most exciting actors of stage and screen. Charles graduated from NIDA in 2014 and is well known for his work on popular series Doctor Doctor. Charles’ other television credits include Summer Love, The Letdown, Harrow, Here Come the Habibs, and Secret City. He was also seen in feature film Australia Day, and web series Liberty Street.

Charles’s theatre credits include The Cherry Orchard alongside Pamela Rabe, An Enemy of the People, Jasper Jones, Samson, The Overcoat: A Musical (Belvoir), The Lifespan of a Fact, Mosquitoes, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Three Sisters, Chimerica (Sydney Theatre Company), The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Darlinghurst Theatre), Golden Blood (Griffin Theatre), and Torch the Place for which he won a Green Room award for Best Actor(Melbourne Theatre Company). Charles was most recently seen on stage in Bernhardt/Hamlet as ‘Edmond Rostand’ for the Melbourne Theatre Company.

Jana Zvedeniuk

Recent theatre credits include Tell Me I’m Here at Belvoir St Theatre, directed by Leticia Cáceres, and the Australian premiere of Yentl at Arts Centre Melbourne, for which Jana won the 2023 Greenroom Award for Best Performance in the role of Yentl. Accoladed five stars by Time Out and Spectator, reviews described: “Jana Zvedeniuk is a marvel. The finest exhibition of the highest kind of histrionic skills.”

Jana Zvedeniuk can currently be seen in SBS’s television series, While the Men Are Away, in the leading role of Esther. The dramaedy that recently aired was directed by award-winning Australian filmmaker, Elissa Down. She made her TV debut in Netflix’s Glitch, as Young Vicky, and has also featured in the Stan/BBC Series, Bump, as Katarina.

Jana is an Australian actor of Ukrainian Jewish heritage. She has undertaken a BFA in Fine Arts (Acting) at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA).

Bob Cousins

Theatre design includes Cloudstreet, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Strange Interlude,  Waiting for Godot , Babyteeth, Mother Courage, and Mortido for Belvoir;  Season at Sarsaparilla, War of the Roses, King Lear, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui  for Sydney Theatre Company;  Moving Target for Malthouse Theatre;  Medea , Husbands and Wives and Flight 49 for Toneelgroep/International Theater Amsterdam; Medea for Burgtheater, Vienna; Eine Griechische Trilogie for Berliner Ensemble and Peer Gynt for Schauspielhaus, Hamburg;  Medea for BAM, New york.

Opera includes Lear and  Médée for Salzburg Festspiele and Polish national Opera; La Traviata for Opera National Paris and Wiener Staatsoper and The Ring for Opera Australia.

Dance includes Weather, Conversation Piece and Motion Picture for Lucy Guerin Inc Dance Company; Complexity of Belonging for Chunky Move Dance Company;

Film designs include Candy, Romulus My Father, Balibo and Ruben Guthrie.

James Stibilj

Steve Francis

Steve has worked extensively in theatre, dance and screen. His Belvoir credits include The Wrong Gods, The Weekend, Jungle and the Sea, Tell me I’m Here, Cursed, My Brilliant Career, Packer & Sons, Things I Know To Be True, Winyanboga Yurringa, Every Brilliant Thing, The Sugar House, The Book of Everything, The Power of Yes, Ruben Guthrie, Baghdad Wedding, and Capricornia.

His other theatre credits include The Sound Inside, The Children, The Weir, The Sublime (MTC); Julia, No Pay No Way, Appropriate, Beauty Queen of Leanne, Still Point Turning, The Father, The Hanging, Disgraced, Battle of Waterloo, Switzerland, The Long Way Home, The Secret River, Machinal and Bloodland (STC); Boy Swallows Universe (QT); Love Stories (Brisbane Festival); Hamlet, Henry V (Bell Shakespeare); and Between Two Waves, This Year’s Ashes, Speaking in Tongues (Griffin).

For dance, Steve has composed music for Baleen (Adelaide Festival), Horizon, Wudjang, Sandsong, Dark Emu, Bennelong, Belong, True Stories, Skin, Walkabout, Bush (Bangarra Dance).

His awards include Helpmann Awards for Best Original Score in 2012 and 2003 and Best New Australian Work in 2003 and Sydney Theatre Awards in 2011 and 2014.

Arjunan Puveendran

Arjunan’s work focuses on the intersection of music, dance, rhythm and dialogue. As a vocalist, percussionist and speaker, he has presented various arts projects in Sydney with collaborator Indu Balachandran including: Atma: Music and Movement (2017), Bhakti: Art and Devotion (2018), Bhoomi: Woman and Earth (2019) and Re-imagining Dance: Brown Bodies on the Global Stage (2020). He also featured in the multi-award-winning play Counting and Cracking (2019) by Belvoir and Co-Curious. He staged Bhoomi: Our Country with Indu for Sydney Festival 2021 at Seymour Centre. Film credits include short film Anthi (2021) and he performed dramatic monologue and vocals for Idam: Place (2022)(collaborations with Anandavalli of Lingalayam Dance Company, and Iqbal Barkat). Arjunan was named by the Australia Council for the Arts, as one of its cohort of 25 Arts Leaders in 2020.

Now based in Sydney, Arjunan trained in Carnatic (South Indian classical) vocal music from Sivaganga Sahathevan OAM and percussion under Balasri Rasiah, under the auspices of Chandrabhanu Bharatalaya Academy in Melbourne. He continues to undertake further studies with leading Carnatic musicians based in Chennai, India.

Arjunan’s body of work also comprises music and rhythmic composition, particularly for dancers including the internationally acclaimed Christopher Gurusamy and Anandavalli. He has produced and performed works as part of The Taste of India, a long running project supported by Multicultural Arts Victoria with performances for the Darebin Music Feast, Piers Festival and Castlemaine Festival. He widely performs Carnatic music for dance productions including credits Mariamman (2013), Navagraha: Planets of Destiny (2014), Margam (2021) and Sringaram (2022).

Aside from music, Arjunan pursues a legal career working as a Partner at national corporate law firm Thomson Geer.

Morgan Moroney

MORGAN MORONEY (he/him) is a lighting and video designer working across theatre, opera, dance and installation.

Morgan’s work as Lighting Designer includes: NAYIKA: A DANCING GIRL (Belvoir), SHITTY (Belvoir 25A), DIDO & AENEAS (Pinchgut Opera), THE TURN OF THE SCREW (Hayes Theatre), THE QUEEN’S NANNY, SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, CLYDE’S, MR. BAILEY’S MINDER, COLDER THAN HERE (Ensemble), CLEANSED (Redline), GIRLS IN BOYS’ CARS (NTofP), THE WET, THE DRY (Circa Cairns), INFERNO (Australian Brandenberg Orchestra), THE BARBER OF SEVILLE (Opera Australia National Tour), ANATOMY OF A SUICIDE (Sugary Rum), JALI (Jubilee Street), SAPLINGS and SHACK (ATYP). Work as Lighting and Video Designer includes: COLLAPSIBLE (essential workers), A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO SELF-DEFENCE (NTofP & Merrigong) and CAMP (Siren & WorldPride). Assistant and Associate Designer work includes: THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA ON SYDNEY HARBOUR (Opera Australia) and DRACULA (Sydney Theatre Company).

Awards include the Michael Northen Award for Emerging Lighting Designers (ALPD UK 2024), Sydney Theatre Award for Best Independent Lighting Design (COLLAPSIBLE 2023) APDG Lighting Design for Live Performance Award (CLEANSED 2022), APDG Emerging Designer for Live Performance Award (GHOSTS 2020).

Margaret Thanos

Margaret Thanos is an award-winning Cypriot-Australian director, writer and actor for theatre and film. She is also the owner of Queen Hades Productions, a production company that works to bring together activism and art.

Margaret’s directing credits include Furious Mattress, Not Now, Not Ever: A Parliament of Women (25A), the 5-star sell-out season of I Hate People; or Timon of Athens (Sport for Jove), A Very Expensive Poison (New Theatre), the Australian Premiere of Labyrinth (Dream Plane Productions) and world premiere of A Grain of Sand (KXT). In 2023, she was awarded the prestigious Sandra Bates Director’s Award at Ensemble Theatre.

She has assistant directing credits on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Belvoir), Benefactors (Ensemble), Mr Bailey’s Minder (Ensemble), This Genuine Moment (Old 505), Animal Farm (New Theatre), Originate Project (Q Theatre), The Linden Solution (Ratcatch) and The Cherry Orchard (Chippen St). Her debut short Life Beyond Christine is currently in post-production.

Her acting credits include: Beautiful Things (Flickerfest Selection), Dear Australia (Spark Theatre), Screen Shot (Toronto Comedy Film Festival Selection), Twinemies (Australian Podcast Award Winner), Spider in My Soup (Shopfront Artslab and Bondi Feast), My Creatures (Tricky Feet), Intersection: Chrysalis (ATYP/Griffin). In 2020, Margaret was a part of Montague Basement’s Laboratory Program and in 2021 she was a part of ATYP’s Fresh Ink.