The speechless clown about to haunt a long-loved theatre

That eternal and nebulous collision of reality and imagination has been spawning all sorts of art for millennia – and a gritty (but fun) incarnation is heading for the stage at Gwynneville.

Originally a major project for his theatre degree, Sebastian has been revived for Wollongong Workshop Theatre by writer and director Stephen Goldrick, an Illawarra resident of 30 years with a vast history of theatrical creations.

The tragi-comic fable was shortlisted for the National Playwrights Conference, the assessors calling it “lively and bold in its frank use of the possibilities of the theatre”.

Stephen said he was fascinated by that bigger world that emerges where timeless imagination meets down-to-earth challenges.

"It can help or hinder getting through challenges – grief, parental expectations, physical disability and psychological states that 50 years ago – when the play is set – were not as openly explored as today," he said.

"The play builds a sense of a mythic Sydney in the 1970s, and ideas can be presented through a time lens rather than with what is often a contemporary but superficial clarity."

Set in a mythic Sydney, Sebastian presents Dave as a garbage collector who practises for the People’s Messiah at the Opera House. He idealises his dead wife, a second-rate club entertainer. His daughter, Josephine, is afraid to even open her mouth, worried that she can’t live up to her father’s expectations.

Josephine creates Sebastian, a Napoleonic clown, and they are allies as Josie builds her confidence while Dave struggles with his obsessions. Experts jump in with varied and often comic results. Even angels and the dead wife join in the chaotic, sometimes tragic, but ultimately hopeful theatrical journey.

Millie Thorn, who plays Josephine, enjoys the fun of "stepping into a whole original story" as her character strives for the courage to leave behind the comfortable and find her voice.

Stephen says, "Millie creates great honesty in her role, a sensitivity mixed with a strong core of self-belief. Gaveen de Silva as Sebastian has no lines but his movement skills and presence on stage mirrors Millie's intensity and joy in story-telling.

"The actors work beautifully together when the rest of the adult world is frowning on their journey, and their performance skills make that journey gripping and delightful."

Gaveen said playing a character fully real to Josephine but invisible to all others brought an interesting tension to work with.

“The physicality of the play rather than dialogue is such a unique challenge and I’m really enjoying it,” he said.

Sebastian is not the first of Stephen's creations to claim the Workshop stage; Anvil managed to claim the space shortly before the pandemic shuttered so much cultural activity, restricting the theatre to two productions over 2020 and 2021. He has also put forward Pyjama Girl, which found an audience at Five Barrel Brewing in 2023.

"Anvil and the Pyjama Girl were both based on strong female characters facing oppressive worlds and taking an effective and courageous stand or agency against that world. This is also the case with Sebastian," Stephen said.

"Those two musicals were based on historical happenings. Sebastian is more mythic, more magic realism, more a theatrical fable about real issues but with corridors of fantasy down which the characters can travel and reveal themselves.

"For instance, the dad is a garbo who gets his garbo mates to practise in the dark city streets for the People's Messiah at the Opera House – a great democratic tradition – while communicating with his dead wife and her attendant angels at the same time.

"Sebastian has some singing but it is not a musical."

Sebastian takes the stage from October 9 to 24, 2026
Tickets: Available at www.wollongongworkshoptheatre.com.au