Bennelong in London

By Jane Harrison
Directed by Ian Michael

90 mins, no interval

This play premiered on 23 Jul 2026 at Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company

Special thanks to Tony Albert for use of the artwork Waratahs.

You’re seated in a theatre on a place named by the Gadigal as Ta’ra.

If you boated to the east for 10 minutes or so, you’d find yourself on Bennelong Point, commemorating the location where a small hut was built in 1790 by Governor Phillip for a Wangal man of the Eora nation, a man who is the subject of the play you’re about to see.

Well, it’s that but it’s also a play about a contemporary First Nations man and actor who is trying to forge a life in the theatre and is trying to tell a story about how to tell stories about our past and specifically, the intersection of two cultures. And how we try to reconcile the pain of that clash in order to teach and to grow and to honour.

Woollarawarre Bennelong was born circa 1764 probably near Balmain and died in 1813 near Kissing Point on the Parramatta River, where he is now buried.

As Tanya Koeneman writes; “the Bennelong we think of today is a construct of generations of information". 

Who and what was he? Emissary, facilitator, translator, prisoner, friend, strategist, resister, outcast, survivor, preserver?

It is a thrill to have revered Australian playwright, Jane Harrison (the talent behind iconic works such as Stolen and The Visitors), back at Sydney Theatre Company to ask some of those questions about one of the most important figures in our country’s history in inventive and subversive ways in a production helmed by one of Australia’s most gifted, innovative and thoughtful directors, Ian Michael. 

It’s an equal joy to be witnessing two wonderful actors – Guy Simon, much beloved to Sydney Theatre Company audiences from multiple productions and Googoorewon Knox in his Company debut after burning up many a musical stage – spin this tale that begins in a share house but expands to country, to the ocean, to the world.

Jane’s play was commissioned by Sydney Theatre Company and it is an example of the ways in which we are invested in supporting the voices of our country’s best playwrights to extend and enrich their practice and to make brilliant theatre for you.  

To that end, I’d like to thank Jane for all her work on the script throughout its development and the very valuable contributions of Uncle Matthew Doyle for his deep expertise, knowledge and guidance throughout that process and during rehearsals, as well as Ian Michael, Jules Orcullo, Dramaturg, and Jonathan Ware, Literary Manager.

Please enjoy this remarkable and very special world premiere.

Mitchell Butel 
Artistic Director and Co-CEO
Sydney Theatre Company 

Sebastian, a contemporary First Nations actor, is auditioning for the role of Woollarawarre Bennelong, the Wangal man who became one of the most significant figures in the early years of the Sydney colony. As he grapples with how to portray one of this country's most contested historical figures, he is confronted by the man himself. Skeptical of being turned into a character once again, Bennelong strikes a pact with Sebastian: he will help him win the role, but only if he is allowed to tell his story, his way.

As Sebastian and Bennelong work through the audition, they retrace Bennelong's life: his encounters with Governor Arthur Phillip and the fledgling Sydney colony, his relationship with Barangaroo, and his extraordinary journey to England with Yemmerawanne in 1792. Travelling between Eora Country and London, archive and memory, the pair wrestles with competing versions of history and what has been left out of the record. 

What begins as an audition becomes a conversation across centuries. As Bennelong challenges the myths that have accumulated around him, Sebastian is forced to confront his own relationship to history, identity and cultural responsibility. Together, the two men grapple with questions of Black masculinity, survival and belonging, and what it means to live within, against, or beyond the ongoing legacy of the colony. 

Bennelong was a complex person, with many dimensions, and someone who found himself in an extraordinary, unprecedented moment in time. His written words are few, and the historical narrative we have access to was written by the colonisers, with all their biases and world views, but we can know him mostly from his actions. And he did a lot ...

In my writing I seek to write from the Blak perspective in creating my characters, which means reading between the lines and interrogating the written history. In ‘playing’ with history I don’t intend to ‘blackwash’ it, to make it more palatable – it was often brutal. But ‘playing’ with history allows me to be inventive and hopefully, surprising. Theatre, I believe, must ask questions and resonate with the lives we are living now.

Bennelong in London began as a commission from STC and has since been workshopped and finessed with the support of the STC ‘gang’, including Jonathan Ware, Jules Orcullo, Ian Michael, alongside our cultural consultant Uncle Matthew Doyle and our amazing actors Goori Knox and Guy Simon. I thank STC for supporting new Australian work and in particular new First Nations work.

It is impossible to think about Bennelong without thinking about the story that has been carried before us. His name is familiar to many - connected to the early years of the colony, to a place, and to a history that has been handed down through generations. But behind that name was a man; intelligent, strategic and adaptable, living through a time of collision, negotiation and profound change.

Much of what we inherit about Bennelong comes through records shaped by the perspectives and assumptions of the colonisers. The gaps in those records invite us to consider what has been remembered, what has been overlooked, and how we understand a person whose life was witnessed and documented largely by others.

From the beginning of rehearsals, we have been sitting with these questions. How do we ensure Bennelong is portrayed in all his humanity, while acknowledging the violence and disruption of colonisation? How do we understand the choices Bennelong made as he moved between worlds?

Bennelong in London sits within these questions. Through the meeting of Bennelong and Sebastian, a young black man preparing to take on the role, the play becomes a conversation across generations about identity, representation and responsibility. Moving between past and present, the work layers imagination with historical encounter, inviting us to consider not only what happened, but how stories continue to shape who we are.

Although separated by more than two centuries, Bennelong and Sebastian share the experience of navigating expectations placed upon Black people: to represent, to adapt, to survive and to find their place in spaces that have not always made room for them. Through them, we have been exploring masculinity, vulnerability, responsibility and the ways people carry the expectations placed upon them.

I am honoured to bring Bennelong in London to audiences on the traditional lands and waters of the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, where so much of this story began. It has been a privilege to work alongside Jane Harrison throughout the development and to continue to bring her powerful and deeply human storytelling to life.

This production asks us to reflect on history, Country, legacy and the stories we choose to carry forward. Bennelong's story continues to be told.

Sydney Theatre Company is grateful to our corporate partners for their generous support of theatre and the arts. We applaud their commitment and vision.

Find out more about our current partners.

Thank you to our donors at all levels, who support a bright future for STC.

View your acknowledgement.

If you would like to help STC continue to be one of the largest employers of artists and theatre-makers in Australia, please consider making a tax-deductible donation.

Sydney Theatre Company Board of Directors

Ann Johnson (Chair)
David Craig (Deputy Chair)
Anita Belgiorno-Nettis AM
Brooke Boney
Mitchell Butel
Sarah Constable
Mark Coulter
Anne Dunn
Sam Meers AO
Heather Mitchell AM
Kate Mulvany OAM
David Paradice AO
Annette Shun Wah
Rosie Williams

See Sydney Theatre Company’s full staff list.

Media Planning by Anthem.