State Theatre Company South Australia in association with the University of Adelaide presents a Sydney Theatre Company and Canberra Theatre Centre Production – Julia. By Joanna Murray-Smith
In 2012, Australia’s first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, gave a speech that sent shockwaves around the world.
Just over a decade later, one of Australia’s most esteemed and globally-produced playwrights, Joanna Murray-Smith, brings the human story behind that speech to the stage.
Justine Clarke, whose triumphant turn in Girls & Boys around the country cemented her position as a dramatic powerhouse, takes on the role of a lifetime embodying the life and career that led to the famous ‘misogyny speech’. Directed by Helpmann Award-winner Sarah Goodes, Julia was a sold-out success when it premiered in Canberra and Sydney in 2023, dazzling audiences with a profound, wry and intoxicating exploration of gender, privilege and power.
This is both an intimate and compelling insight into the person behind the public mask and a reflection on the experience of women in contemporary politics. Combining genuine excerpts from Gillard’s speech with Murray-Smith’s incredible dramatic imagination, this play is a thrilling coming together of history and art.
As women around the world continue to fight for human rights, representation and against oppression, Julia is an empowering reminder of where we’ve come from and the challenges that lie ahead, seen through the prism of Julia Gillard’s childhood, education in Adelaide and her journey into and through the battlefield of Australian politics.
