Hearth By Fleur Murphy

It looked so beautiful. It looked magical - snow, falling here, in January. But it wasn’t snow.

It’s the 7th of February 2009 – forever known in Australia’s history as ‘Black Saturday.’ It’s also Tom Robinson’s 18th Birthday. Celebrations kick off at the family’s Kinglake home and nothing seems out of the ordinary. But tensions start to rise between Tom and his older brother Matthew, along with the temperature outside, and before the ice-cream cake has time to melt a deeply held family secret is revealed. But will bringing everything out in the open finally give the Robinsons the peace and acceptance they’ve constantly struggled for – or will it tear them further apart and make them question the very structure they’ve tried to uphold?

Brilliantly striking the balance between pathos and humour, Hearth immediately draws in audiences with its witty and lyrical dialogue, relatable characters and timely themes.

Selected for the 2022 VCAA Playlist for Theatre Studies, Unit 3&4