A BELLOO creative & CRITICAL STAGES PRODUCTION

MOTHERLAND

By Katherine Lyall-Watson

Directed by Caroline Dunphy

MOTHERLAND is a play about three remarkable real women based on the incredible true story of Nell Tritton, a Brisbane socialite who married Russia’s deposed Prime Minister, Alexander Kerensky, and helped him escape from the Nazis during the Second World War. This is gripping contemporary theatre, weaving stories of belonging, love and loss that span decades, continents and world wars.

Shortlisted for the Sydney Theatre Company's Patrick White Playwrights’ Award, MOTHERLAND is a tapestry of friendship, displacement, home, and identity – a finely-crafted story of the casualties of love, ambition, and politics.

Sweeping through the Russian Revolution, World War II, and Brisbane history, Motherland is an epic new work of historical fiction, informed by actual events.

Three women, exiled from their homelands, find their lives are woven together across continents and decades. Nell Tritton, the Brisbane wife of a deposed Russian prime minister forms a close friendship with Nina Berberova, who is exiled in Paris. The woman who would tell their story is Alyona, a Russian curator whose dreams of a new Australian paradise are crushed by bankruptcy and the Fitzgerald Inquiry.

THE REVIEWS ARE IN

The best plays sweep you up, visually and emotionally, and drop you down amongst the action. They’re so engaging you can’t escape. They’re so spectacular you don’t want to. The newest production on my Best Plays list is the phenomenal ‘Motherland’. ... High-energy, entertaining and emotionally stirring. — Weekend Notes

This new production of Katherine Lyall-Watson’s play is a beautiful piece of work in every possible way. It is a finely crafted script that melds perfectly from character to character, time-frame to time-frame and country to country... I must say here that all five of the actors were superb... The play was first performed in 2013 to acclaim and now, after more work and a new technical team, the script comes to life in a new way. It is one of the best plays I have seen in a while. — Eric Scott, Absolute Theatre (April, 2016)

Motherland is the most beautifully crafted and intelligently delivered story you’ll see on stage this year. Its passion and fierce beauty will stay with you long after you leave the theatre. — Xanthe Coward, XS Entertainment (April, 2016)

... In your face melodrama... — Martin Buzacott, The Australian (April, 2016)

... the audience is treated to an impressive tapestry of the human experience, with all its quirky twists and turns, which makes life so unpredictable…The playwright, cast and director Caroline Dunphy have done a fine job in taking an interesting real-life personal history out of the Brisbane story and turning it into a compelling piece of theatre. — Douglas Kennedy, Hush Hush Biz (April, 2016)