Water Rats actress brings an extraordinary life to local stage in ambitious new work

WHEN her colleague Kate Wild introduced her to the Miles Franklin-winning novel Tirra Lirra by the River, Heather Fairbairn was immediately drawn to its central character, Nora.

Witty, wry, acerbic, proud and anxious, Nora struck Fairbairn as a richly complex figure who deserved to be brought to the stage.

Together, the pair set about creating a theatrical adaptation of the book, starring acclaimed actress Toni Scanlan – known to many for her long-running role in Water Rats.

“Nora, the play’s protagonist, lives an extraordinary life,” Byron Bay–based Fairbairn said. “Over the course of the 20th Century she lives in an artist’s commune in jazz-age Sydney, weathers the lows of the Depression, experiences love on an ocean liner, only to arrive in London divorced and pregnant.

“The plays starts when Nora, at the age of 77, returns to the house where she grew up. As memories surface, she revisits different stages of her life and tries to make sense of who she has become.”

Fairbairn said the work explores what constitutes a life well lived, while also capturing what she and Wild found most compelling about Jessica Anderson’s novel – its exploration of memory and imagination.

“That’s what we are excited about recreating on stage – the rich, layered experience of being inside Nora’s mind,” she said. “Through Nora, we explore a story about ageing that isn’t positioned as decline but as a time of reckoning, memory and imagination.

“It’s such a beautifully crafted portrait of a woman reflecting on her life, her mistakes, her creativity, and her sense of belonging.”

Fairbairn and Wild have been working together for several years, having co-founded the experimental Brisbane-based theatre company The Hive Collective.

“Through Hive, we collaborated on three new productions of work by contemporary Australian female playwrights at Metro Arts, so we already had a shared language around developing new productions,” Fairbairn said.

Having previously directed NORPA’s acclaimed production of Prima Facie at Byron Theatre, Fairbairn said she recognised the venue as an ideal home for the premiere.

“It attracts a wonderfully engaged audience who are open to thoughtful, ambitious work,” she said. “It’s also a community-owned venue, which means the work created there is truly connected to the people who live here.

“Staging the premiere here is also about making a statement that high-quality, text-based theatre can be created and presented locally, not just in capital cities. So often work is made in the cities and toured to the regions. I’ve regularly had to rehearse productions in Sydney for them to tour to regional Australia later. What I’m interested in is reversing that pipeline – making work in the regions and sending it to the cities, so regional voices are part of the national conversation.”

The story’s themes also resonate strongly with the Northern Rivers community, Fairbairn said, touching on belonging, identity, ageing and the tension between staying and leaving.

“The Northern Rivers is a place where many people have reinvented themselves, moved here for a different life, returned after years away, or found community later in life,” she said. “Nora’s journey reflects that search for home and identity.”

When it came to casting, Scanlan was a clear choice.

“We were looking for an actor with extraordinary emotional range, intelligence, and presence – someone who could carry the audience through decades of memory and life experience,” Fairburn said.

“Toni was our first choice. She’s widely known to Australian audiences from her long-running role on Water Rats, but she’s also one of the country’s most respected stage actors, with an extensive career performing for companies like Belvoir, Sydney Theatre Company and Queensland Theatre. She’s won multiple Sydney Theatre Awards for her work, which speaks to the depth of her craft. And importantly for us, she lives in the Northern Rivers. That combination of world-class experience and local connection made her the perfect Nora.”

For Fairbairn, the production represents something larger than a single performance – it’s about bringing world-class theatre home.

“It’s being created by artists with national and international experience who have chosen to live and work in the Northern Rivers, and we’re proud to be making something ambitious for our local community,” she said.

Tirra Lirra by the River is at Byron Theatre 5-12 June. For more information and tickets, visit byroncentre.com.au/theatre-events/tirra-lirra-by-the-river