2009
World Premiere
Perth Institute of Contemporary Art
Original music theatre production by Hold Your Horses & Side Pony Productions
Director & Dramaturge: Zoe Pepper
Composer / Musical Director: Ash Gibson Greig
Choreographer / Costume designer: Tarryn Gill
Set designer: Pilar Mata Dupont
Lighting Designer: Lucy Birkinshaw
Stage Manager: Nicole Gillespie
Cast: Tim Watts, Brendan Ewing, Sarah McKellar, Shirley Van Sanden
Chorus: Natalya Alessi, Oda Aunan, Maree Cole, Lily Newbury-Freeman and Whitney Richards
Production photographs by Kim Tran
World Premiere
Perth Institute of Contemporary Art
Original music theatre production by Hold Your Horses & Side Pony Productions
Director & Dramaturge: Zoe Pepper
Composer / Musical Director: Ash Gibson Greig
Choreographer / Costume designer: Tarryn Gill
Set designer: Pilar Mata Dupont
Lighting Designer: Lucy Birkinshaw
Stage Manager: Nicole Gillespie
Cast: Tim Watts, Brendan Ewing, Sarah McKellar, Shirley Van Sanden
Chorus: Natalya Alessi, Oda Aunan, Maree Cole, Lily Newbury-Freeman and Whitney Richards
Production photographs by Kim Tran
Heart of Gold
Heart of Gold is an original, darkly comic musical set in rural WA, featuring a family unravelled by secrets, a haunted landscape and one boy's fantasy of West Australia forever at war with the Eastern states.
Iris Brown and her children Angus and Violet are a family living in isolation on the outskirts of Paucity. Their solitude is broken by the entrance of Constable Irving Saddle, the only guest to attend Violet's dismal fourteenth birthday party. As Irving's control gradually infects the household, Angus's already unhinged perception of reality is stretched to dangerous proportions. He retreats into a nationalistic fantasy world 'Westralia' defended by a sinister, Ziegfeld-esque female army which embodies the family's dark past. Angus's waking and dreaming lives merge into one another, and Irving uncovers the horrible secret beneath the house.
"The production is on an epic scale, a full two-act feast of music, dance, satire and drama that almost defies description" Ali Taulbut, The West Australian, November 3 2009
"A beautifully staged rural-gothic extravaganza" Urzula Dawkins, RealTime, Issue 93
"It would be wonderful to see Heart of Gold picked up and developed by a main-stage company" Steve Bevis, The West Australian, January 4 2010
Heart of Gold is an original, darkly comic musical set in rural WA, featuring a family unravelled by secrets, a haunted landscape and one boy's fantasy of West Australia forever at war with the Eastern states.
Iris Brown and her children Angus and Violet are a family living in isolation on the outskirts of Paucity. Their solitude is broken by the entrance of Constable Irving Saddle, the only guest to attend Violet's dismal fourteenth birthday party. As Irving's control gradually infects the household, Angus's already unhinged perception of reality is stretched to dangerous proportions. He retreats into a nationalistic fantasy world 'Westralia' defended by a sinister, Ziegfeld-esque female army which embodies the family's dark past. Angus's waking and dreaming lives merge into one another, and Irving uncovers the horrible secret beneath the house.
"The production is on an epic scale, a full two-act feast of music, dance, satire and drama that almost defies description" Ali Taulbut, The West Australian, November 3 2009
"A beautifully staged rural-gothic extravaganza" Urzula Dawkins, RealTime, Issue 93
"It would be wonderful to see Heart of Gold picked up and developed by a main-stage company" Steve Bevis, The West Australian, January 4 2010
