A man, Pete, comes home drunk and abusive one night in a rural Australian town and strikes his wife. It's a frequent occurrence but this time his family's reaction is different. Something snaps and one of his daughters knocks his legs out from under him, the other hits him in the head and his wife shoots him in the neck. What do they do next? And how will the town - which has previously ignored Pete's abusive behaviour - react to the disappearance of one of its own?
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Brenna Harding, who plays younger daughter Ida in Angus Cerini's play The Bleeding Tree, said one woman a week was killed in Australia through domestic violence. She said she hoped one day social justice would prevail and the work could be regarded as a period piece.
The setting and time of the play are unspecified but Sophie Ross, who plays Ida's older sister Ada, said, "What's really important about The Bleeding Tree is it could be set now. It's very pressing and important now. It could be set now, it could've been set 50 years ago.
"Why do we all know the statistics and do nothing? We all know it's very important and a major problem - we're still searching for some sort of solution."
Ross said The Bleeding Tree was unusual in that the major event of the play, the killing, was presented at the beginning.
"It starts in a level of high drama, shock, grief."
Then, she said, it went on to deal with such issues as what to do with the corpse as well as the reactions of other people - all played by Harding, Ross and Paula Arundell, who plays Mum.
The Bleeding Tree, directed by Lee Lewis, premiered at Griffin Theatre Company in 2015 with Arundell, Shari Sebbens as Ada and Airlie Dodds as Ida and won Helpmann Awards for best play, best direction and best female actor. It also won the NSW Premier's Literary Award. In 2016 the same production was presented by the Sydney Theatre Company and now Griffin is taking the play on tour, with Arundell from the original cast joined by Harding and Ross, all of whom have extensive stage and screen credits.
The Bleeding Tree is on at The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre, until Saturday, May 12. Bookings: canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 62752700.
