TELL ME
I’M HERE

  • 20 Aug – 25 Sep 22 Upstairs Theatre
  • 2 hours 20 minutes (incl. 20 minute interval)
Archived

TELL ME
I’M HERE

Written and Adapted for the stage by Veronica Nadine Gleeson,
Based on the book by Anne Deveson
Directed by Leticia Cáceres

  • Venue Upstairs Theatre
  • Dates 20 Aug – 25 Sep 22
  • Duration 2 hours 20 minutes (incl. 20 minute interval)
  • Content warning

    Tell Me I’m Here contains adult themes, scenes of violence and suicide and the use of strong language. This production also uses herbal cigarettes.

    If Tell Me I’m Here  raises any concerns for you following the performance, Lifeline offers a 24 hour counselling service and can be reached at 13 11 14. Additional information can be found on their website, www.lifeline.org.au.

    Should you need any complex mental health support, SANE (www.sane.org/get-support, 1800 18 7263 ) and Flourish (www.flourishaustralia.org.au, 1300 779 270) provides a range of services to provide the support, connection and resources for you or someone you care about.

    Other services which may be of assistance include mental health advocacy organisation,  Beyond Blue (www.beyondblue.org.au1300 224 636), and youth mental health foundation, Headspace (www.headspace.org.au). You may also consider speaking to a trusted source or engaging your local GP.

    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.

  • Supported by
    • The Group

The life-changing memoir, now a breathtaking play.

Since its publication thirty years ago, Anne Deveson’s family memoir Tell Me I’m Here has become a classic. And now, in a superb adaptation, it comes to the Belvoir stage.

Anne’s life – the familiar juggle of marriage, career, emotions, chaos – is thrown off-balance when her son Jonathan begins speaking oddly, standing strangely, flashing into irrationality and rage. Is it just a phase, part of growing up? The years pass, and it’s clear, Anne’s son has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. But putting a name to it is one thing – getting attention, getting help is another. Even the strongest families, the most steadfast parents, buckle under such stress.

Heart-rending, exquisitely touching, a play which speaks things which normally aren’t spoken. A play about getting on with life, before it’s too late.

Many of you have read Anne’s unforgettable memoir of her son Jonathan. Veronica’s written a superb adaptation, a portrait of a family which knows joy and death intimately. Directed by the magnificent Leticia Cáceres (The Drover’s Wife, Barbara and the Camp Dogs), it’s going to be a highlight. – Eamon

Tell Me I’m Here is the proud recipient of the Blake Beckett Trust Award.

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TEAM

  • Veronica Nadine Gleeson
    Playwright
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    Tell Me I’m Here is Veronica’s first play for Belvoir Street Theatre. Other works for the stage include 360 Positions In a One Night Stand (Sydney Festival), Words and Pictures (Griffin Theatre Company) and All This Beautiful Life (The Production Company, New York). During a fifteen year hiatus from writing, Veronica worked as a creative […]

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  • Anne Deveson
    Original Author
  • Leticia Cáceres
    Director
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    Leticia is one of the most in-demand directors for new writing in Australia. Leticia won the Helpmann Award for Best Direction of a Mainstage production for The Drover’s Wife by Leah Purcell, for Belvoir in 2016, as well as Best Direction Sydney Theatre Awards. Leticia directed  the world premiere of Barbara and the Camp Dogs […]

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  • Cast

  • Tom Conroy
    Jonathan
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    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 […]

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  • Deborah Galanos
    Ensemble
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    For Belvoir, Deborah was seen in Stop Girl, The Boomkak Panto and 25A’s Son of Byblos. Other theatre credits: Greek Tragedy (Belvoir Company B), Wicked Sisters (Griffin), Lady Tabouli (National Theatre Of Parramatta/Sydney Festival), Gods Of Strangers (State Theatre Company South Australia), The God Committee, Heartbreak Kid (Ensemble), I’m With Her, The Mystery of Love & Sex (Darlinghurst Theatre Company), Antigone (Sport For Jove), Metamorphoses (Apocalypse/Old Fitz), Unfinished Works, Homesick (Bontom/Seymour/505), Seagull (Secret House), Dropped (The Goods Theatre Company/Old […]

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  • Nadine Garner
    Anne
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    One of Australia’s most respected actors, Nadine Garner’s career has spanned film, television and theatre for more than 30 years. Nadine has worked for many of Australia’s theatre companies performing both contemporary and classical pieces, Tell Me I’m Here will be her debut performance at Belvoir. Her theatre credits include; The Lifespan Of A Fact, […]

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  • Raj Labade
    Joshua & Others
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    Raj Labade was born in Sydney in 2000 and is of Indian-Anglo decent. He began acting at high school performing in various musicals, plays and comedy sketches. At the age of 17, he began his professional Career as ‘Lewis’ in the 2019 Australian feature film, “Back of The Net”. At 18, Raj was Accepted into […]

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  • Sean O’Shea
    Ensemble
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    Sean O’Shea has worked extensively in theatre for many years. He has appeared in over twenty productions for Bell Shakespeare including the title role in Macbeth and their tour to the U.K. of Comedy of Errors. He played Rupert Murdoch in Rupert for Melbourne Theatre Company and at the Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C. Most […]

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  • Jana Zvedeniuk
    Georgia & Others
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    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 […]

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  • Creatives

  • Stephen Curtis
    Set Designer
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    Stephen’s extensive design career spans four decades and embraces set and costume design for features, short films, dance, drama, opera, physical theatre and musicals, including major collaborations with Australia’s leading directors, choreographers, festivals and performance companies. He designed the sets for Company B Belvoir’s first production Signal Driver and has subsequently designed sets and or […]

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  • Veronique Benett
    Lighting Designer
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    Veronique is a lighting, set and costume designer.  In 2019, Veronique completed a Master of Fine Art (Design for Performance) majoring in lighting. She also holds a Bachelor of Fine Art (Technical Theatre and Stage Management) from NIDA. As a lighting designer, Veronique’s credits include: Wolves (Belvoir); Burn Witch Burn (Old Fitz); Happy Days (Red […]

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  • Steve Francis
    Composer and Sound Designer
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    Steve has worked extensively in theatre, dance and screen. His Belvoir credits include 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 Children, […]

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  • Alyx Dennison
    Composer and Sound Designer
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    Alyx Dennison is a singer, composer and sound designer living and working on Gadigal Land. She is a fierce advocate for equality in education and the arts, with a particular interest in work which illuminates (and works to dissolve) systems of class, power and hierarchy. She cut her teeth on experimental pop duo kyü, who toured […]

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  • Ella Butler
    Costume Designer
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    Ella is a Sydney-based designer for theatre, film and live performance. In film, Ella has worked as the series Set Decorator on ‘Born To Spy’ (SBS, Aquarius), ‘While The Men Are Away’ (SBS, Arcadia) and Art Director on the experimental, operatic film ‘A Delicate Fire’ with Pinchgut Opera. In collaboration with CATSinAM, The Congress of […]

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  • Ruth Little
    Dramaturg
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    Ruth Little is a theatre and dance dramaturg, a teacher and writer. She lectured in English literature at the University of Sydney, was literary manager at Griffin Theatre Company, Out of Joint, Soho Theatre, Royal Court, and artistic associate at the Young Vic (London). She was dramaturg for Akram Khan Company from 2010-2021. Previously associate […]

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  • Charmene Yap
    Choreographer
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    Charmene is an award-winning dancer, choreographer, rehearsal director and dance educator. She graduated from WAAPA and has trained at Purchase College in New York. She has danced for Chunky Move, Tasdance, Dancenorth and Lucy Guerin Inc. and performed with Sydney Dance Company for ten years, where she is now the Rehearsal Associate. Her stage works […]

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  • Claudia Osborne
    Assistant Director
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    Claudia is a Sydney-based theatre director, and the co-director of independent theatre company, FERVOUR. She has a Masters in directing for performance from NIDA. Her directing credits include BURN WITCH BURN (FERVOUR/Old Fitz), Picnic At Hanging Rock (NIDA), Destroy, She Said (FERVOUR/25A), Delilah By The Hour (FERVOUR/Brand X Flying Nun), Homesick (Bontom, Old 505), The […]

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  • Tim Dashwood
    Fight Director
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    Belvoir: The Life of Galileo. Other Theatre: Sydney Theatre Company:Julius Caesar, Death of a Salesman, No Pay? No Way!, Lord of the Flies. Opera Australia: Whiteley, West Side Story on Sydney Harbour, Krol Roger, Faust. shake & stir theatre co.: Fantastic Mr Fox, Jane Eyre, George’s Marvellous Medicine. New Theatre: The Removalists. Outhouse Theatre Co: […]

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  • Laura Farrell
    Accent/Vocal Coach
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    Laura Farrell (she/her) is a Voice and Dialect Coach living and working on Gadigal land. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Voice from NIDA; a Post Graduate Diploma in Voice from the Victorian College of the Arts; and a Bachelor of Music Theatre from the Victorian College of the Arts. A current lecturer […]

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  • Luke McGettigan
    Stage Manager
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    Luke is Belvoir’s Resident Stage Manager. For Belvoir, he has stage managed The Jungle and the Sea, Tell Me I’m Here, Opening Night, The Boomkak Panto, Stop Girl, My Brilliant Career, A Room of One’s Own, Packer & Sons, Things I Know To Be True, Counting and Cracking, The Dance of Death, A Taste of […]

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  • Holly Fernanda
    Assistant Stage Manager
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    Originally from Sydney, Holly entered the arts industry as a young performer and was introduced to stage management while completing her Certificate III in Live Production (2017–18), igniting a keen interest in theatre, film, television, and event work. Since graduating the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) in 2021, her theatre credits include “Opening Night” […]

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AWARDS & ACCOLADES

2022
Blake Beckett Trust Award – Veronica Nadine Gleeson

Information
for schools

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    Recommended for Years 11 – 12

    TERM 3

    Schools Performances

    Tickets are only $24 per student with one complimentary teacher ticket for every ten students booked.
    • Wed, 14 Sep 2022 11:30am

    All schools performances are followed by a Q&A session with the cast.

    School groups can book any general public performance. Book our Thursday 1PM matinees for the schools performance price of $24 per ticket, or an evening performance from $43 per student.

    What to expect

    Belvoir creates for a wide audience and our productions may contain mature content.

    Contact Us

    For more information about our education programs, please get in touch.

    Education Manager Jane May
    Education Coordinator Stevie Bryant
    +61 (2) 8396 6241

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