Boy Out of The Country

There's more to land than real estate. There's more to family than DNA.

A fast, funny and smartly observant play about family, property and the progress of life.

Troubled country boy Hunter returns home from the city after a mysterious seven-year absence to find the family property swept up in a regional housing estate, his mother in aged care, and his brother Gordon in charge. In this moment of shifting economies and loyalties Hunter goes in search of answers, but for he and Gordon sibling rivalry and childhood nostalgia will collide with unexpected consequences.

Written by award-winning playwright Felix Nobis, Boy Out of the Country is a bush ballad for contemporary regional life, written in vernacular verse reminiscent of the poetic tradition of Banjo Patterson. Here, old Australia meets new Australia—a country cop comes to terms with rapid social change, a backyard is less important than an extra bedroom, and the places that were once so familiar can change before our eyes.

Directed by Erica Lovell this newly realised production features a stellar cast including Tom Harwood (Things Not to do After a Break Up), Jason Glover (Van Dieman’s Land), Jeannie Gee (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Stan Kouros (Actors Centre Australia) and Amelia Robertson-Cuninghame (Anatomy of an Offence, Love Child).

"A play infused with the vitality of Aussie idiom and melodrama, that crackles with understatement and wit." - Cameron Woodhead, The Age

"Mr Nobis’s writing is a particular kind of brilliant…Nobis’s command of ‘vernacular verse’ is faultless." - Stage Whispers

A story of land, family and belonging, Boy Out of the Country emerged from the Melbourne Theatre Company Affiliate Writers Scheme and was awarded the R. E. Ross Trust Script Development Award. The play was featured as the premiere work at the 2018 Pioneer Play Festival Castle Hill.

Creative Team
Written by: Dr Felix Nobis
Directed by: Erica Lovell
Producer: Robbi James
Set Design: Tom Bannerman & The Rogues
Production Manager: Claire Ferguson
Photographers: Rosa Doric and Jen Holland