Playwright Leah Purcell Wins Australia’s Top Literary Prize
Leah Purcell, an Indigenous Australian playwright and actress, won Australia’s top literary honor. The Guardian reports that Purcell was awarded $100,000 and “the Victorian prize for literature for her acclaimed reimagining of Henry Lawson’s ‘The Drover’s Wife.’” The play also earned her the $25,000 Victorian prize for drama.
Purcell, who also acts in the play as the titular character, was selected from a shortlist of 21 works to receive the top prize, the source writes.
“The Drover’s Wife” premiered at the Belvoir Theatre in Sydney, Australia in 2016. Leticia Cáceres served as director. According to its synopsis, the play is a “fresh rewrite” of Lawson’s classic. “Once again the Drover’s Wife is confronted by a threat in her yard in Australia’s high country, but now it’s a man. He’s bleeding, he’s got secrets, and he’s black. She knows there’s a fugitive wanted for killing whites, and the district is thick with troopers, but something’s holding the Drover’s Wife back from turning this fella in…”
“I just wanted to write a good story, but with the Black Lives Matter movement it’s so relevant it’s ridiculous,” Purcell has said of “The Drover’s Wife.”
“I always want my work to affect people,” she added. “When I go to the theatre I want to be moved. I don’t mind if I love it or hate it, I want to be stimulated, I want to be shocked. I want fear. That’s what live theater’s all about.”
Previously, Purcell co-wrote and acted in the play “Box the Pony.” She directed the documentary “Black Chicks Talking,” the short film “Aunty Maggie and the Womba Wakgun,” and episodes of “The Secret Daughter” and “Cleverman.”
