Sunday at Melbourne Theatre Company

By Anthony Weigh

Directed by Sarah Goodes

A FANTASY OF LIFE AT HEIDE

Starring Nikki Shiels (Girls & Boys, The Picture of Dorian Gray), this world premiere Melbourne Theatre Company commission is an audacious fantasy inspired by the stories and myths that surround Heide Museum of Modern Art founder Sunday Reed – the muse and mentor to a circle of artists including Sidney Nolan, Albert Tucker and Joy Hester.

Sunday Reed isn’t like most women. In fact, she’s not like most men. Outspoken, uninhibited, adventurous, she has a laser eye for the new – in life and in art. When struggling artist Sidney Nolan arrives at Heide, the idyllic utopia Sunday is creating with her beloved husband John Reed on the outskirts of 1940s Melbourne, what ensues will haunt all three to their dying days. And in the aftermath, Australian art will never look the same.

Award-winning playwright Anthony Weigh (2,000 Feet Away) creates a fantasy around this Melbourne icon that captures her passionate and unconventional spirit. Directed by Sarah Goodes (The Sound Inside) and also featuring Matt Day (North by Northwest) and Ratidzo Mambo (The Heartbreak Choir), Sunday is an unforgettable story of a bold and complex woman and the price she paid for living and loving on her own terms as a woman in mid-20th century Australia.

★★★★★ "A world-class performance. In fact, it's a world-class production." - The Guardian

★★★★★ "A visually stunning world." - Theatre Thoughts

★★★★½ "A brilliantly realised ode to some of the most important figures in modern Australian art." - Limelight

★★★★½ "A sumptuous production." - ArtsHub

"Anthony Weigh’s play is a gem." - The Times UK (on Like a Fishbone)

"Fabulously ambitious." - Stage Noise (on 2,000 Feet Away)

Writer: Anthony Weigh

Director: Sarah Goodes

Cast: Matt Day, Ratidzo Mambo, Josh Mcconville, Nikki Shiels, Joshua Tighe