By Mary Anne Butler
26 – 19 February 2023
Red Stitch Theatre
“With Wittenoom, Mary Anne Butler has achieved something remarkable…an intense, passionate play, sharp and evocative in its imagery.“
Stage Whispers
Dot and Pearl live in Wittenoom: the blue asbestos mining town in WA’s Pilbara. So begin glorious days, when the Pilbara’s stunning landscapes, magnificent wildlife and close-knit community shaped an idyllic lifestyle; wild-natured Dot making the most of every second, while teenaged Pearl tries to make sense of what her own life might be.
Wittenoom follows Dot and Pearl’s personal story, filled with humour, sorrow, and the friends they make along the way. Butler expertly weaves their journey into the frame of the Wittenoom tragedy, asking questions about accountability in an era where the health and cultural impacts of mining ricochet as heavily in 2023 as they did in 1962.
Wittenoom won the Shane & Cathryn Brennan Prize for Playwriting.
Writer: Mary Anne Butler
Director: Susie Dee
Cast: Pearl: Emily Goddard
Dot: Caroline Lee
Set & Costume Design: Dann Barber
Lighting Design: Rachel Burke
Composition/Sound Design: Ian Moorhead
Asst. Lighting Design: Spencer Herd
Stage Manager/Assistant Director: Cassandra Fumi
Assistant Stage Manager: Georgina Bright
Photo: Robert Blackburn
Photo: Robert Blackburn
“As well as its poetic language, the play is carried along by the strong and nuanced performances of the two lead actors, who are equal in their talent, their memorability, and their deft and graceful display of a huge emotional range compressed into a short space of time…Lee is a veteran of stage and screen, with an iconic turn in The Dressmaker. Her confidence is beautiful to behold and her craft lends a believability to an inherently sympathetic character.”
1/2
Arts Hub
“In excellent performances, Caroline Lee and Emily Goddard make a striking contrast. Lee presents a kind of glittering, heedless, take-no-prisoners persona – that makes her fate all the more moving.”
Stage Whispers
“Caroline Lee and Emily Goddard are deftly able to insert nuance into their characterisations, to switch temperament in the blink of an eye. They lay it all on the line. It is raw. It is confronting. It is oh so compelling.”
The Blurb
Photo: Jodie Hutchinson