SONG OF FIRST DESIRE

SONG OF
FIRST DESIRE

13 Feb – 23 Mar 25 Upstairs Theatre

SONG OF FIRST
DESIRE

By Andrew Bovell
Directed by Eamon Flack

Venue Upstairs Theatre
Dates 13 Feb – 23 Mar 25

Content warning

Approximate running times of each production are uploaded to the production page as soon as that information becomes available. During the rehearsal period running times are liable to change given the extensive workshopping and development each production undergoes before it reaches the stage.

Content warnings will also be uploaded to each production page as they are advised.

Should you wish to speak to a member of staff regarding running times, content warnings or any other show related queries, our box office can be contacted on 02 9699 3444.

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From the inimitable Andrew Bovell (When the Rain Stops Falling, Things I Know to Be True) comes a superb new play of passion, history and politics, intimate in its detail and epic in its storytelling.

Camelia is losing her grip, lost between the past and the present as she passes her days in the garden of her Madrid home. Her children employ Alejandro, a Colombian migrant, to look after her. But this house isn’t what it seems, keeping the terrible secrets of history in its stones. As Alejandro’s presence begins to unlock the past, it shakes a family that has buried its pain – and its country’s – for too long.

This is a dazzling piece of writing. Set in 1968 and the present, it unpicks the instincts that drive individuals and whole societies towards fear and violence – and perhaps, also, reconciliation. Andrew wrote it with and for an acclaimed theatre collective in Madrid, where it premiered, in Spanish, in 2023. We’ve invited Jorge Muriel and Borja Maestre from that original cast to join the great Kerry Fox and Sarah Peirse for the English premiere. I think you can call it a must-see. – Eamon

_{Song of First Desire was first produced by Octubre Productions, Spain in 2023.}

Performance Times

Upcoming Performances

Thursday • 13 Feb 2025

Saturday • 15 Feb 2025

Opening Night (Invite Only)

Tuesday • 18 Feb 2025

6:30pm

Q&A Following Performance

Wednesday • 19 Feb 2025

6:30pm

Thursday • 20 Feb 2025

1:00pm

Unwaged Performance

Weekly Times

tuesday 6:30pm
wednesday 6:30pm
thursday 1pm & 7:30pm

No 1pm performance on 6 Mar
friday 7:30pm
saturday 2pm & 7:30pm

No 2pm performance on 15 Mar
sunday 5pm

Preview Session
Special Performance
School Performance

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General release tickets on sale Tuesday 3rd December 2024

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TEAM

Andrew Bovell
Writer

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Andrew Bovell
Eamon Flack
Director

Eamon Flack is the Artistic Director of Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney. He is a director, writer, dramaturg and script developer for stage and screen. Eamon was born in Singapore and grew up in Singapore, Darwin, Cootamundra and Brisbane. He has a BA (English and History) from the University of Queensland, and trained as an actor […]

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Eamon Flack

Eamon Flack is the Artistic Director of Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney. He is a director, writer, dramaturg and script developer for stage and screen.

Eamon was born in Singapore and grew up in Singapore, Darwin, Cootamundra and Brisbane. He has a BA (English and History) from the University of Queensland, and trained as an actor at WAAPA from 2001 to 2003. He has worked around Australia and internationally, from the Tiwi Islands to Sri Lanka and the UK. He has led Belvoir’s new work development in various guises since 2006, and has commissioned and developed many of the company’s most acclaimed new works over the last 15 years.

His productions of The Glass Menagerie, Angels in America and Counting and Cracking won the Helpmann Awards for Best Play in 2015, 2016, and 2019.

His key directing credits include: Counting and Cracking (with Associate Director S. Shakthidharan, winner of the Helpmann Award for Best Direction of a Play and nominated for the Sydney Theatre Award Best Direction of the Mainstage Production), The Jungle and the Sea (co-directed with S. Shakthidharan, winner of Best New Work and Best Production at the Sydney Theatre Awards), Angels in America, The Glass Menagerie, Into the Woods, 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 Hendrik Ibsen’s Ghosts and Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Ivanov (Sydney Theatre Awards Best Production and Best Director), as well as The Rover, The Blind Giant is Dancing, As You Like It, and Beckett’s The End. His 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 (winner of the 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 (Winner, Best New Work, Sydney Theatre Awards 2022); 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.
A cast of 4
Kerry Fox

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Kerry Fox
Borja Maestre

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Borja Maestre
Jorge Muriel

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Jorge Muriel
Sarah Peirse

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Sarah Peirse

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SONG OF
FIRST DESIRE