Packer & Sons

This November, Belvoir will present the eagerly anticipated world premiere season of Packer & Sons by Tommy Murphy (Mark Colvin’s Kidney, Holding the Man). Directed by Belvoir Artistic Director Eamon Flack (Counting and Cracking, Life of Galileo), this is a play about power and what it does to the men who wield it.

Tommy writes real life like no one else—complex dramatic portraits, a pitch-perfect sense of the public intereset in the private life. In other words, no one is better suited to write about the Packer line. This is about power in Sydney, and fathers and sons across generations, and the childhood traumas that drive us forward.

Fom humble beginnings, the myth of the Packer dynasty grows in step with their increasing influence, as each son feels the weight of time, of power. Newspapers, magazines, broadcast TV—what are they? How does each generation keep the empire one step ahead of the technological race, declare himself free of the shadow of his father and build a lasting legacy.

“This is the story of patriarchy and the way power is passed from one man to another, and the cost of concentrating power in these men. It’s a historical story that has found its time in 2019 as big-man politics continues to assert itself on the national and international stage.” - Eamon Flack, Artistic Director

Packer & Sons stars an impeccable line up of acting talent, with John Howard (Mark Colvin’s Kidney, Ivanov, TV’s Sea Change), Josh McConville (A Taste of Honey, The Sugar House), John Gaden (The Wild Duck, Cloudstreet), Brandon McClelland (STC’s Three Sisters, STC’s The Present), Nick Bartlett (Old 505’s Plastic, TV’s Home and Away) and Anthony Harkin (Neighborhood Watch, Hayes Theatre’s Miracle City).

A deeply researched, muscular work, Packer & Sons puts on stage the men who have loomed large over Sydney for nearly a century, following the transitions of power from father to son over three generations.

Supported by Australian Writers’ Guild’s David Williamson Prize, Copyright Agency Fund, Walking Up the Hill Foundation.