World Premiere of Alana Valentine’s Newest Play ‘Nucleus’

Griffin Theatre Company is delighted to present the world premiere of Nucleus, the latest work from one of Australia’s most celebrated playwrights, the multi-award-winning Alana Valentine. In Nucleus, Valentine examines the line between personal ambition and global responsibility in the heightened world of environmental activism.

Inspired by five years of research including interviews with locals in Valentine’s home of Jervis Bay, Nucleusis a tender and surprising work of fiction, set against the enflamed background of one of Australia’s most divisive environmental issues, nuclear power.

Gabriel is a nuclear engineer. Cassie is an anti-nuclear campaigner. For nearly thirty years their lives have collided and entwined, with Cassie’s cause dominating public opinion across the decades. But with political change rumbling underfoot, Cassie’s life’s work could yet be undone. It’s all led to one night, and the revelation of an explosive personal history.

This passionate two-hander sees Australian theatre greats Paula Arundell (The Bleeding Tree) and Peter Kowitz (The Floating World) return to Griffin Theatre Company, with direction by Griffin’s very own Associate Artistic Director and recent Creative Australia Award-winner Andrea James (swim, Jailbaby).

Artistic Director of Griffin Theatre Company, Declan Greene:

In 2016, Alana brought Ladies Day to Griffin—a work of shattering, well-researched brilliance. Nucleus is another play grounded in oursocial fault-lines, but this time Alana has written a work of pure fiction. It plunges into the heat of the nuclear debate— but contains a much larger statement on the impossibility of ethical and personal purity. With gargantuan, complex roles for Paula Arundell and Peter Kowitz, I think this will be a surprising and thrilling night in the theatre, crafted by one of Australia’s truly great playwrights.

PLAYWRIGHT Alana Valentine DIRECTOR Andrea James DESIGNER Isabel Hudson LIGHTING DESIGNER Verity Hampson SOUND DESIGNER Phil Downing VIDEO DESIGNER Laura Turner DRAMATURG Dylan Van Den Berg STAGE MANAGER Tanya Leach CAST Paula Arundell and Peter Kowitz.

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Season Details

Venue: Seymour Centre
Date: 14 Feb – 15 Mar 2025

For more information click HERE