The nostalgia of a more fruitful time haunts the mind of a lone peach farmer as he nears the end of his battle against big industry takeovers.
My Country for a Peach is inspired by the stories and situations that fruit farmers were facing when preserving companies such as SPC Ardmona stopped sourcing their supply locally. On the verge of losing everything, many farmers in the Shepparton area were left with no other choice but to rip out and burn their trees.
Led by Vessel creative director Jim Lawson, 6 actors, 2 directors, 12 writers and a dramaturg presented a series of plays exploring national identity. The unique gathering of many theatrical voices subverts the norm of one voice on the stage by delivering immediate engagement with the daring ideas of 12 individual writers from diverse backgrounds. The commissioned works explored who we are and who we could be as a nation. They are a timely and powerful response to how these themes are reflected on our stage and in the street. The writers included Patricia Cornelius, John Romeril, Maysa Abhouzeid, Candy Bowers, Tania Canas, Emilie Collyer, Ross Mueller, Fleur Murphy, Kamarra Bell-Wykes, Deborah Leiser-Moore, John Kachoyan and Chi Vu and was presented at the Arts Centre in Sept/Oct of 2016.