Encore season for The Wake at Brunswick Heads

THE original musical The Wake is returning to the Brunswick Picture House after a sellout premiere season last year.

Tracing the days when The Brunswick Heads Fishermen’s Cooperative was at the heart of the coastal town, the play reflects generations of fishing families and the community’s love of fish and chips at the boat harbour.

The Co-Op closed in 2017, and the trawlers are long gone.

The drama, tragedy, humour, and romance of prawn trawling life on the treacherous Brunswick bar were captured by writer and director Ollie Heathwood, who collaborated with Jude Magee, Annie Wylie, Ashleigh Dallas, and Luke O’Shea on the songs.

“It was sold in 2016 because there weren’t enough active fishermen left as members for it to have legal standing,” Heathwood said.

“Once it fell below a certain number of active fishermen members, by law, they had to close.

“The fishermen who came to the show last year just couldn’t believe it.

“We had a family from Melbourne that I had interviewed because this man’s brother had died on a boat out at sea.

“They all flew up and just cried through most of the show; they were so moved.”

Heathwood has lived in the region since 1978 and was an early trailblazer with the first successful environmental blockade in Australia at the Terania Creek protest in 1979.

Now 74, the Brunswick Heads-based playwright, musician, composer, theatre company creator and community worker is as busy as she ever has been.

“I went to NIDA in 1969 and worked in the theatre in Sydney, and when I moved up here, there wasn’t much going on, so I started stuff, and I’ve been starting stuff ever since,” she said.

“I keep retiring, and then I keep coming back because, well, here it was.

“I was walking past that dead fishing Co-Op every day and wondering why it wasn’t here anymore.

“When I wrote the script, I transcribed all of my interviews with fishermen, their families, Co-Op workers, and I used their words in all of the songs.”

Heathwood is delighted with the forthcoming encore.

“So many people in the community couldn’t get a ticket because it sold out last time,” she said.

“But we didn’t see enough fishermen there, and I think it’s probably because they don’t get to the theatre very much.

“One guy I interviewed said, ‘I’m not into the arts, luv’, and he was one of those that sat in the front row and cried.

“I’m putting on a free matinee for anyone who was on a boat or worked at the co-op or anything to do with the fishing industry, and we’ll promote that through the local industry and fishing networks.”

The Wake runs from August 22-24.

For tickets, visit brunswickpicturehouse.com/the-wake-22-24-aug