The Secret River exquisitely illuminates the unspeakable under the stars  (The Conversation)

Beyond sorry: Colonial oppression on Australian stages (The Conversation)

Andrew Bovell’s adaptation of Kate Grenville’s The Secret River is a key example of post-Apology theatre. AAP Image/Heidrun Löhr

"Theatrical journeys into Australia’s colonial history have often been rather grim affairs. Over the last 30 years or so, some of country’s most eminent playwrights – Louis Nowra, Andrew Bovell, Stephen Sewell, and Katherine Thomson among others – have created works in which the physical and psychological frontiers of settlement resemble grisly warzones of colonial oppression. So where are we now, in terms of our non-Indigenous drama?" (Read more in the article.)

It's time to adapt: We need a fully functioning national drama. (The Conversation)

Feature: A note from Andrew Bovell (Sydney Theatre Company):

"My collaborators Neil Armfield and Stephen Page and the Artistic Directors of the Sydney Theatre Company, Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett, heard me out but encouraged me to return to the book. They were right to do so. Perhaps by inventing this other story I was simply delaying the inevitable confrontation with the material at hand. Besides, Kate Grenville answered my curiosity about what happened to Dick Thornhill in her sequel to the novel, Sarah Thornhill. However, reaching beyond the source material into an imagined future was an important part of the process for me. I was trying to come to terms with the legacy of the violence depicted in the novel. I wanted to understand how this conflict is still being played out today." (About Andrew Bovell)

Sydney Theatre Company Education Resources - summary of scenes, about Kate Grenville, about Andrew Bovell's interpretation of the novel for the play.

The Secret River in the Quarry - ABC Books and Art. 

- Michael Cathcart describes the atmosphere and speaks to audience members who also went to the outdoor performance space at the Anstey Hill Quarry, north of Adelaide.

An interview with Andrew Bovell The Secret River: Our history is contested space