Betrayal, lives ruined, lovers torn apart, and generations affected all under the guise of religious morality, Good Works by Nick Enright comes to the stage at Mill Theatre at Dairy Road. See the tale of two Aussie families in previews on 12-15 July, ahead of the season from 19 July to 12 August.

Set in a small town, two girls from Irish Catholic families become friends; soon they are women and then they are mothers with sons. Along the way, conflicts arise and then a betrayal shatters their bond. This fallout shapes the lives of the women and their children.

“It is a very Australian story because it’s set in a particular small town, it’s steeped in the morality and the outlook of an Australia that perhaps is gone but perhaps is not … It is a story that is both quite common because it is about families at war with each other and yet always confronting, absorbing and a little bit shocking,” says director, Julian Meyrick.

On a mission to ignite a passion for Australian plays, he wanted to revive the 1995 piece for only the second time since it was written. Meyrick, who authored Australia in 50 Plays, says that unlike America and England where theatre programming sits at around 30 per cent revivals, in Australia we only revive a work every few years.

With such a rich repertoire of accomplished Australian playwrights, Meyrick says more should be brought back to the stage. One of these is Nick Enright, known for The Boy From Oz and Lorenzo’s Oil.

According to Meyrick, Enright possesses the special ability of being a male playwright who could capture convincing women, something that only someone who cares about women could do. The female characters in the play followed the same timeline and arc as Meyrick’s mother.

“Nick would have grown up in this time and so when you read the play, you’re aware of a number of factors. One is the kind of Catholicism and the wowserism of Australia at the time; the second is the way the small communities cook up and the way they gossip; and then the third is this kind of yearning for something different, the beginnings of a kind of a desire to be freer.”

Family-driven dramas have a special place in Australian storytelling, Meyrick believes. The English-raised creative says ask someone for their family story and you need at least an hour and a half as most people have a complex tale to tell. He says Good Works is a perfect example of this, showing the drama and how it things change over the course of decades.

“Australia is a strange country, isn’t it? Because every time it changes, it sort of disconnects from the country that it was, but it sits there just underneath the surface, the other kind of Australia,” says Meyrick.

As the play switches quickly between decades, recent NIDA graduate Kershaw has had her work cut out for her. Building an environment the exudes the emotion of the story through op shop finds, and raiding relatives’ sheds and wardrobes, Kershaw has been hunting for historical finds. Spending hours of research to capture the perfect look for each character, the designer wanted to be part of the storytelling as soon as she read the play.

“I find it a really beautiful and lyrical script, the way that it deals with big drama and the heavy topics, and flows through time,” she says.

According to Meyrick, the play is designed for an anyone seeking an Australian experience. The story is uniquely Australian; anybody who has lived in a small town or gone through a similar experience will be able to relate to it.

“The particular generational conflicts that can happen in Australia … you get these very strong differences of view between the generations,” says Meyrick.

“If any childhood friends who have fallen apart for any reason, that kind of emotion and loss of childhood connection is so strong throughout the play that can resonate with people,” says Kershaw.

The space captured in the production invites the viewer to reflect on their own experiences, families and traumas that they might be carrying with them.

“Although it deals with big themes of community and big events in these people’s lives, it is so personal the whole way through. Things veer off track; it just feels to me so real in the way things just accumulate and gather between these people. It’s got a kind of gentleness to the tragedy that is really sweet to just be able to sit with,” says Kershaw.

“It makes it more inescapable. You don’t have to be a figure from a Greek tragedy, you just have to be alive,” adds Meyrick.

See Good Works at Mill Theatre at Dairy Road in previews until 15 July and in season, 19 July-12 August; milltheatreatdairyroad.com

Canberra Daily is keen to hear from you about a story idea in the Canberra and surrounding region. Click here to submit a news tip.