PAMELA RABE and BERT LABONTÉ will join the cast of the Perth season of August: Osage County

Black Swan Artistic Director Kate Champion is thrilled to announce that Australian stage and screen legends Pamela Rabe and Bert LaBonté, who currently headline Belvoir Street Theatre’s production of August: Osage County, will also join the ensemble cast for the Perth season at Heath Ledger Theatre from 27 February to 16 March 2025.

The Perth season will mark both actors’ debut performance at Heath Ledger Theatre. Probably most recognisable from her unforgettable performance as Joan “The Freak” Ferguson in TV’sWentworth, Pamela Rabe AM is one of Australia’s most highly regarded and awarded actors. She has appeared in numerous productions for Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company and has starred in countless iconic theatre classics including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, My Fair Lady, The Glass Menagerie, Hamlet and Mother Courage and Her Children.

She was recently seen as Madame Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard at Belvoir St Theatre. Her film screen credits include Sirens, Paradise Road, Vacant Possession, Cosi and The Well. She has recently returned from performing in the National Theatre UK/Alexander Zeldin Company’s production of The Confessions in London and throughout Europe. In August: Osage County, Pamela plays the formidable matriarch Violet Weston.

Pamela has received many accolades for her theatre, film and television work, including Helpmann, Green Room, Logie, Variety Club, Stockholm Film Festival and AFI/AACTRA awards, and she was recently recognised as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her distinguished services to the Arts.

Bert LaBonté is one of Australia’s leading men, who recently captivated audiences as Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Perth audiences will remember Bert LaBonté as Sam Pickles in the epic Tim Winton classic Cloudstreet. Other musical theatre credits include: The Book of Mormon (Watchtower Productions), Helpmann Award Winner An Officer and a Gentleman (Gordon Frost Organisation), and Chess (The Production Company).

Bert’s TV roles include Colin from Accounts, Erotic Stories, The Newsreader, Playing for Keeps, and Upper Middle Bogan. Bert will be playing Violet’s son -in- law Bill Fordham in August: Osage County.

Pamela and Bert join an exceptional cast of seven local Perth actors Caroline Brazier (Things I Know To Be True, Mary Stuart); Geoff Kelso (The Seed, The Pool); Amy Mathews (Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Toast); Hayley McElhinney (Dirty Birds, Oil); Ben Mortley (York, Laughter on the 23rd Floor); Will O’Mahony (Things I Know To Be True, Assassins); Rohan Nichol (Plainsong, Red Dog); Rounding out the thirteen-strong ensemble cast is Bee Cruse, Anna Samson, Greg Stone and Esther Williams.

August: Osage County, is considered to be one of the most monumental plays of the 21st century, a Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning tragicomedy by American playwright Tracy Letts. Belvoir’s season directed by Eamon Flack will run from 9 November to 15 December, 2024.

Set in Pawhuska, Oklahoma in 2007, the charismatic but alcoholic poet-patriarch Beverly Weston (Geoff Kelso) has gone missing. As his acerbic wife Violet (Pamela Rabe) descends into opiate addiction, their three daughters dutifully return to their childhood home with their spouses and children. Unfinished business abounds, and deeper, darker secrets are eventually revealed.

August: Osage County is a co-production between Black Swan State Theatre Company and Belvoir St Theatre, and is presented in association with Perth Festival.

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Season Details

Venue: Heath Ledger Theatre
Date: 27 Feb-  16 Mar 2025

For more information click HERE