Production still for "Heart is a Wasteland". L-R: Ursula Yovich as Raye, Aaron Pedersen as Dan. Photographer: Deryk McAlpin
Heart is a Wasteland
By John Harvey
29 June 2017 – 16 July 2017 Beckett Theatre
Malthouse Theatre, Arenamedia and Brown Cab Productions,
Commission Theatre Music Film Co-Production
Raye is struggling, a country music star in the making. Riding her luck, she’s playing pub to pub along Australia’s vast desert highways, flogging demo CDs for ten bucks a piece until she can go home to Alice and look her son Elvis in the eye. Then Raye’s life becomes entwined with that of another wanderer and a love affair unfurls over the four-day drive to Alice Springs.
Heart is a Wasteland sees John and Margaret Harvey combine theatre, film and live music in this intimate portrait of two travellers that cuts to the country’s heart. Two of Australia’s most revered actors, Ursula Yovich (Love and Information) and Aaron Pedersen (Water Rats, Mystery Road, Goldstone) come together to portray two achingly beautiful characters in a whiskey-fuelled battle of egos and hidden scars.
From Brown Cab Productions, Heart is a Wasteland is a luminous journey towards the recognition of everyone’s worthiness of, and right to, love.
★★★★
"A MOVING ROAD TRIP THROUGH AUSTRALIA'S DESERT CENTRE"
— The Age
"ENLIGHTENING AND UTTERLY REFRESHING"
— Theatre People
Cast
Creatives
Director
Video Designer
Production Designer
Sound Designer
Lighting Designer
Dramaturg
Playwright
Stage Manager
Songwriter
Acknowledgements
A co-production with Brown Cab Productions. Script development proudly supported by Footscray Community Arts Centre and the Malcolm Robertson Foundation.