“Anne-Louise Rentell directed an outstanding Merrigong Theatre Company production right up there with the best of what’s been playing in Sydney and Melbourne this year" — The Canberra Times
“Valentine has fashioned a respectful yet shattering and harrowing play that is gripping and compelling, wonderfully performed.” – ArtsHub
“…a really excellent work of verbatim theatre” – Australian Stage
Dead Man Brake by Alana Valentine
A Merrigong Theatre Company production
Premiere season: 28 August – 8 September 2013
At 6.24am on Friday 31st January 2003, a State Rail train left Sydney on the journey south to Wollongong. It never reached its destination. In a bush cutting just south of Waterfall station it left the tracks, the front car dragging the trailing carriages, claiming seven lives and injuring dozens more in what became known as the Waterfall train disaster. A Special Commission of Inquiry concluded that earlier safety warnings regarding the ‘deadman’s emergency brake’ had been ignored.
Using the words of survivors, as well as family members of victims, emergency service workers, and even the Inquiry transcript itself, Dead Man Brake sensitively explores the tragic circumstances of that day.
Commemorating 10 years since the accident, Merrigong Theatre Company was honoured to present this poignant and poetic new Australian work by award-winning playwright Alana Valentine. Dead Man Brake is ultimately an uplifting and powerful examination of human resilience in the face of tragedy.
CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM
Director: Anne-Louise Rentell
Composer & Sound Designer: Daryl Wallis Lighting Designer: Toby Knyvett
Costume Designer: Imogen Ross
Set Designer: Anne-Louise Rentell
Cast: Alicia Battestini, Nicholas Brown, Gerard Carroll, Phillip Hinton, Drayton Morley, Katrina Retallick, Sabryna Te’o