Blackrock — La Boite and QUT Creative Industries

Overview

In Blackrock, a night of beachside booze-swilling fun ends with more than a hangover when a young woman is found dead the next morning. Many a murder-mystery and crime thriller has started this way, but Nick Enright's stunning classic isn't any old tale of lives lost, witnesses scared and a community scrambling — it draws its drama from real-life events.

Enright first penned a play called A Property of the Clan back in 1992, which was inspired by the murder of a 14-year-old in 1989. It became Blackrock, which was initially staged in 1995, and then turned into a movie in 1997. Indeed, the latter marked the first credited film appearance of Heath Ledger.

Now, two decades after the film adaptation, La Boite is joining forces with QUT Creative Industries for a new version of one of the most powerful pieces of Aussie theatre from the past three decades. The uni's final year acting students join forces with veteran performers to bring the haunting tale back to life, creating a must-see production that touches upon everything from small-town malaise to cultures of violence to class and generational conflicts.