In a rusted-on Labor town like Wollongong, it's not surprising tickets to the stage-show Julia – which comes to the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre in September – are selling like hot cakes.
I caught the show during the Sydney Theatre Company's sold-out season in 2023 and can't wait to enjoy a repeat performance closer to home, with Justine Clarke at its centre in the lead role.
Julia is, of course, Australia's first and only woman Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. In a compelling coming together of history and art, this incredible dramatic imagining renders a powerful monologue that takes us through the key moments in PM Gillard's life, culminating in 'that speech'.
It was 9 October 2012 when Gillard took to the podium during question time to respond to a motion proposed by the then leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott. The motion accused Gillard of sexism and called her leadership into question.
In the months leading up to this moment, Gillard had repeatedly been criticised in the media and by politicians from across the Australian political spectrum for her unmarried status, her appearance, her decision not to have children, for her hair and the clothes that she wore, and for her general demeanour, which many commentators considered to be categorically unfeminine.
Inspired by the hypocrisy that she perceived to be motivating the accusation of sexism, Gillard delivered a now-historic speech that became an instant viral sensation around the world, and cemented her position as one of Australia's most impactful and memorable political figures.
The speech preceded the Me Too movement
The play is an imaginative deep dive into the psychology of that speech and the woman who made it. It is an attempt to trace the influences and hidden histories that all came to a head on that day in 2012, and an electrifying study of the power of words and the machinations of democracy as they function in the 21st century.
Kip Williams, the former CEO and artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company, said Gillard's words reverberated around the world, prefiguring global movements such as Me Too and Time's Up. "The ideas and experience Gillard expressed that day spoke to many, and they continue to do so," Kip said.
It was Kip Williams who asked Joanna Murray-Smith to write a play about Julia Gillard. "He called me with the idea, aware of the impending anniversary of the famous 'misogyny speech'. I expressed polite scepticism, I think. But I promised to go away and read everything I could on Julia Gillard in order to be certain I couldn't write the play," Joanna said.
"Rewatching Prime Minister Gillard's delivery of the speech, I was in awe of her command of drama. Her use of language, her timing, her swoops in rhetoric from the simple to the sophisticated and her meticulously revealed rage were astonishing. In her hand she held a couple of quotes from Tony Abbott, but otherwise it was a spontaneous, immaculately articulated eruption fuelled by frustration, humiliation, injustice and time," Joanna said.
The play is 'a judgement on the world'
"My play is not a judgement on Julia Gillard's term in office – I don't know enough for that, and others have and continue to write such things. But it is, like all plays, a judgement on the world. I'm grateful to Kip for suggesting it and I'm grateful to Julia for lending me her life. Through its architecture, I have built a character. It can't be true, but I'm not sure that it needs to be if it does the job a play must do: to give the audience an invitation to wonder."
Tonight, Thursday, 7 August, at 7pm, locals will get a sneak peek of the play and how it came together when the playwright is In Conversation at IPAC, together with Lord Mayor Tania Brown, and hosted by Mel James from ABC Illawarra.
Speaking on air with Mel last week, Joanna said she consulted with Julia Gillard before starting to write. Without her permission, she said, the play wouldn't be written. "I needed to know she's OK with it and when she said she was, it gave me great freedom," Joanna told ABC Illawarra.
Julia's breakthrough moment
"Then I had to decide how can I bring a sense of who she really is ... and I wanted to give her the credit for which she didn't really get when she was leader."
Joanna said the misogyny speech was "the breakthrough moment when we saw the real Julia".
The play has toured Australia to sell-out audiences everywhere it's played. "The audiences are so enthusiastic; male and female audiences," Joanna said. "They feel at the time they didn't give her enough credit ... the extraordinary accomplishments of her leadership.
"The play is not just about the good stuff, it also looks at her failures ... and she's also funny, and I wanted to get that into it."
Tickets for Joanna Murray-Smith In Conversation with Lord Mayor Tania Brown and Mel James from ABC Illawarra are free but bookings are essential on the Merrigong website.
It's a two-week season in Wollongong and I can't recommend a night with Julia highly enough. Don't die wondering. Accept the IPAC invitation.
Julia is at IPAC from September 3-13; tickets via Merrigong
