It’s Toby Ackland’s birthday party down near the surf club and that should mean heaps of grog, drugs and good clean fun. But by the morning a young girl is dead, raped by three boys and bashed with a rock.

Who is responsible? The boy? The girl? Or the whole town.

Blackrock, playwright Nick Enright’s play about a teen party which culminates with a brutal rape and murder on the beach, was deeply disturbing when it was written 30 years ago.

Sadly many of the themes, which swirl around the narrative after the tragic event, still resonant today as Australia struggles with issues of domestic abuse, respect and gender equality.

Blackrock was originally adapted from a 45-minute piece by Enright, “A Property of the Clan”, that was inspired by the sexual assault and murder of 14-year-old Leigh Reannea Mears, near Newcastle in 1989. The award-winning play premiered in 1995, became a film in 1997, and was critically acclaimed.

Lunatix presents this intimate and strongly shaped human drama focusing in on the social forces behind the male impulse to violence and the community’s response in the aftermath, which are actively relevant in today society.

Featuring a strong cast of performers including, Flecther Von Arx, Bailey Griffiths, Sabrina Hault, Olivia Micthell, Javier Lumsden, James Parker, Samuel John, Isabel Dickson, Charlotte Palmer, Cassandra Hart and Hayley Michaels.

*Content warning: Contains coarse language, violence, assault, misogyny, suicide references, murder, rape, sexual assault and cancer. Recommended for ages 14+.

EVENT DETAILS:

NIGHT PERFORMANCES: 7:30PM, 25 - 28 JUNE 2025

MATINEE PERFORMANCE: 2PM, 28 JUNE 2025

DURATION: 90 MINUTES WITHOUT INTERVAL. DOORS OPEN 30 MINUTES BEFORE THE SHOW

VENUE: THE SHOWROOM THEATRE