GRIFFIN THEATRE COMPANY

PRESENTS

KILL CLIMATE DENIERS

DAVID FINNIGAN
23 FEBRUARY-
7 APRIL
Director Lee Lewis
Designer Jonathan Hindmarsh
Lighting Designer Trent Suidgeest
Sound Designer Steve Toulmin
Audiovisual Designer Toby Knyvett
Stage Manager Khym Scott
With Eden Falk, Sheridan Harbridge,
Emily Havea, Rebecca Massey,
Lucia Mastrantone

SBW STABLES THEATRE

23 FEBRUARY-7 APRIL

Government Partners
Supported by Griffin’s
Production Partner
program

Griffin acknowledges the generosity of the Seaborn, Broughton & Walford Foundation
in allowing it the use of the SBW Stables Theatre rent free, less outgoings, since 1986.
 PLAYWRIGHT’S
I’ve spent the last ten years producing
theatre in collaboration with climate and
earth system scientists. I produce ‘science
theatre’ as part of a collective called Boho
– we take concepts from climate science
and complexity theory and turn them into
performance pieces.
The goal is to take these concepts from

NOTE
climate science to audiences who would
never in their lives come to a theatre show
about climate change: politicians, mining
company executives, policy-makers and so
on. We’re cautious about making work that
‘doesn’t just speak to progressive arts
audiences’, we work constantly on getting
out of our bubble.
In that work I spend a lot of time bending
over backwards to ‘avoid politicising the
science’, picking my words carefully to
avoid getting anyone offside. And that’s
important, because that’s how you build
consensus, that’s how you get into
conversations with people from the other
side of the fence about land and resource
management, and maybe that’s how we
formulate change.
This play isn’t that. This isn’t going to
change anyone’s mind about anything. This
is years of anger and despair tied up in a
barrage of some of the best music our
species has ever produced. This is
everything I wanted to say but bit my
tongue about, year after year, until I sat
down and blurted it all out in one hit. This is
fuck it I’m scared, turn the volume all the
way up, panic euphoria, hold hands tightly
let’s go.
Straighten up and fly right, ecstasy
chasers. It takes a full day’s work just
to survive.
David Finnigan
Writer
 DIRECTOR’S
Be careful of entering your play in the
Griffin Award. You may just win. And at
Griffin we are really committed to giving
winning plays a production. This is not one
of those comfortable awards that gives
you a cheque and lets you put the play

NOTE
in a drawer. Someone should have warned
David Finnigan. Because he was onto a
good thing – the story of having his play
shut down by right-wing commentators.
Guaranteed sympathy from the left, a lot
of outrage from fellow artists, an album,
a walking tour, a one-man show, dinner
invitations… endless possibilities.
But then Kill Climate Deniers won the
Griffin Award last year. It was unlike
anything else we had read in its fury, its
audacity, its typography, its cheekiness,
its understanding of Canberra.
And now David has to watch the legend
become a play. And wonder, like all
playwrights heading into production, if his
words can make their way off the page,
onto a stage and into our consciousness
in such a way that it can make a difference
to the status quo. Faith in the power of
theatre to create change can be hard to
cling to. But it inspires me that the son of a
climate scientist is using an artistic voice to
spread his father’s work out into the world.
His passion for climate politics is as fierce
as the science is real. We are not fighting
climate wars yet. But as Cape Town runs
out of water I wonder when and where the
first battles will be fought.
There is a clear-sighted provocation inside
this play: ‘If you are not against us you are
for us’. If we do not actively fight against
climate deniers we are passively accepting
and thus supporting their politics. We may
not like to see ourselves as climate deniers,
but if we stick our heads in the sand that is
what we are. This is sobering, disturbing,
destabilising and true, both personally
and politically. Malcom Turnbull, your
thoughts please?
Lee Lewis
Director
David Finnigan
Playwright
David Finnigan is a writer, theatre-maker and game developer. He
works at the intersection of science and art, producing participatory
works that explore concepts from game theory, complex systems
science, network theory and resilience. David is a Fellow of the
Churchill Foundation and the Australia Council for the Arts. He has
been a resident artist at University College London, Tanghalang
Pilipino in Manila, and Campos de Gutierrez in Colombia. David
is the founder of two Australian performing arts festivals: the
Crack Theatre Festival in Newcastle and the You Are Here Festival
in Canberra. He is the co-founder of science-theatre ensemble
Boho and an artistic associate of UK company Coney and Filipino
company the Sipat Lawin Ensemble.
Lee Lewis
Director
Lee is the Artistic Director of Griffin Theatre Company and one
of Australia’s leading directors. For Griffin she has directed: The
Bleeding Tree (Best Director at the 2016 Helpmann Awards),
Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography, The Homosexuals
or ‘Faggots’, Rice, Masquerade (co-directed with Sam Strong),
Gloria, Emerald City, A Rabbit for Kim Jong-il, The Serpent’s
Table (co-directed with Darren Yap), Replay, Silent Disco, Smurf
In Wanderland, The Bull, The Moon and the Coronet of Stars,
The Call, A Hoax, The Nightwatchman. Other directing credits
include: for Griffin and Bell Shakespeare: The Literati; for Bell
Shakespeare: The School for Wives, Twelfth Night; for Belvoir:
That Face, This Heaven, Half and Half, A Number, 7 Blowjobs,
Ladybird; for Hayes Theatre Company: Darlinghurst Nights;
for Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC): Hay Fever and David
Williamson’s Rupert, which toured to Washington DC as part
of the World Stages International Arts Festival and to Sydney’s
Theatre Royal in 2014; for Sydney Theatre Company: Honour,
Love-Lies-Bleeding, ZEBRA!; for Darwin Festival: Highway of
Lost Hearts.

Jonathan Hindmarsh
Designer
This is Jonathan’s first production with Griffin. His previous
credits include, for Apocalypse Theatre Productions: Doubt: A
Parable; for Imperial Artistry: Crimes of the Heart; for The Kings
Collective: The Wonderful World of Dissocia; for La Mama:
Intoxication; for Mad March Hare Theatre: Belleville; for NIDA:
Hunger, Sports Play; for New Theatre: The Cherry Orchard; for
the Old 505 Theatre: The Criminals; for Q Theatre: Teacup in a
Storm; for Red Line Productions: A View From the Bridge, The
Judas Kiss, Look Back in Anger; for Sport for Jove: Away; for
Thread Entertainment: Low Level Panic. He has also been the
production designer on a number of music videos, including
Huntington’s ‘Secret’ and the short film Redflags for ACON
health organisation. Jonathan graduated from NIDA. He also
holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English Literature and
Theatre from University of New South Wales.
Trent Suidgeest
Lighting Designer
Trent was the lighting designer for Griffin’s The Homosexuals or
‘Faggots’. Other recent credits include: for Ambassador Theatre
Group: The Beast; for Opera Australia: Carmen, The Opera (The
Eighth Wonder); for Opera Australia and Barking Gecko Theatre
Company: The Rabbits; for The Production Company: Dusty,
Jesus Christ Superstar, Nice Work If You Can Get It; for Sydney
Theatre Company: Muriel’s Wedding, Hay Fever, Talk; for Hayes
Theatre: Calamity Jane, Only Heaven Knows, Darlinghurst
Nights. His credits as set & lighting designer include: for Black
Swan State Theatre Company: Death
of a Salesman, Dinner and
Shrine; for Black Swan State Theatre Company and Belvoir: The
Sapphires; for Melbourne Theatre Company: National Interest;
for Queensland Theatre: Other Desert Cities, Gasp!, Managing
Carmen. Other highlights: Praying for Time: A Tribute to George
Michael, From Sydney with Love and I Am Eora (Sydney
Festival); Waltzing the Wilarra (Perth International Arts Festival).
Trent is a recipient of the Mike Walsh Fellowship and WA’s
Department of Culture and the Arts Young People Fellowship.
He is a graduate of WAAPA (Production & Design).

Steve Toulmin
Sound Designer
Steve’s credits as composer and/or sound designer include: for
Griffin: Gloria,
The Homosexuals or ‘Faggots’, The Bleeding
Tree, Beached;
for Griffin and La Boite: A Hoax; for Bell
Shakespeare: Othello, Richard III; for Belvoir: Jasper Jones,
The Blind
Giant Is Dancing, Ivanov, La Traviata, Blue Wizard, Is
This Thing On?, 20 Questions, The Seed and Scorched; for La
Boite: Tender Napalm, Julius Caesar, Hamlet; for La
Boite and
Sydney Theatre Company (STC): Edward
Gant’s Amazing Feats
of Loneliness; for Michael Sieders Presents: Porn. Cake; for
the
Royal Queensland Show: Arena Spectacular; for STC: A
Flea In
Her Ear, Power Plays, Little Mercy; for Ensemble Theatre: Great
Falls, Liberty Equality Fraternity, Circle Mirror Transformation;
for Queensland Theatre: Switzerland, That Face; for Strut &
Fret: Blanc De Blanc; for Sydney Festival: All
The Sex I’ve Ever
Had. Steve’s credits as associate designer include: for Belvoir:
Radiance, The Baulkham
Hills African Ladies Troupe.
His credits
as audiovisual designer include: for Griffin: Angela’s Kitchen,
Between
Two Waves; for STC: God of Carnage, Tot Mom.
Steve is also known as a songwriter and music producer, having
worked with artists such as Ricki-Lee Coulter, Samantha Jade
and Megan Washington.
Toby Knyvett
Audiovisual Designer
Toby was the audiovisual designer on Gloria for Griffin Theatre
Company. His previous video and lighting design credits for
the stage include: for CDP: Incredible Book Eating Boy (original
production and national/international tours); for Next Wave
Festival: The River Eats, which has since been remounted
at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
(Korea); for Performance Space: I Might Blow Up Someday;
and for Sport For Jove: All’s Well That Ends Well, which
won Toby the 2014 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Lighting
(Independent Production). His previous lighting design credits
include: for the Australian National Maritime Museum: Actions
Stations, which saw Toby light the HMAS Onslow submarine
and HMAS Vampire destroyer. Toby’s interactive art credits
as creator and/or developer include: for the Sydney Opera
House’s Creative Play program: Echo Tables, which allowed
participants to collaboratively draw with their shadows, and The
Unbroken Line, a 7.5m wide ‘bodyscreen’ built to react to body
movements without touch. He is a founder of EAG, the world’s
first record label for experiences. Now based in Berlin, Toby’s
long-term project, Orbital Illumination, aims to reflect unused
sunlight in space down to earth using mirrors.

Khym Scott
Stage Manager
Khym was the stage manager for Griffin’s Festival of New
Writing, The Witches, Girl in Tan Boots and The Serpent’s
Table. From 2013 to 2017 he was assistant stage manager of
the Australian Ballet, and toured regionally (as stage manager),
nationally, and internationally. Other recent credits include: for
Sydney Festival: Lady Rizo: Red, White and Indigo, for Belvoir:
This Heaven, Miss Julie; for Performance 4a: Stories Then and
Now. He has also stage managed for Sydney Gay and Lesbian
Mardi Gras. Khym is a graduate of NIDA and the University of
Sydney.
Eden Falk
Finig
Eden performed in Griffin Independent production The Ugly One.
His recent theatrical credits include: for Belvoir: A Christmas
Carol, The Great Fire, This Heaven; for Black Swan State Theatre
Company: Death of a Salesman; for Brisbane Powerhouse/Ride On
Theatre: The Blind Date Project; for post/Performing Lines: Who’s
the Best?; for Sydney Theatre Company (STC): Macbeth. From
2006 to 2009 he was a member of the STC Actors Company,
and performed in multiple award-winning productions including
Barrie Kosky’s The Lost Echo, Robyn Nevin’s Mother Courage
and Benedict Andrews’ War of the Roses. He also received an
Australia Council grant to develop a small-scale intimate work
with the multi-award winning Belgian theatre collective Ontroerend
Goed. The result was A Game of You, which was produced in
Belgium and London in co-operation with the National Theatre
Studio. Eden’s feature films include Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty,
Baz Luhrman’s The Great Gatsby, Simon Stone’s The Daughter,
and Jeffrey Walker’s ABC television drama Riot. Eden is a WAAPA
graduate.

Sheridan Harbridge
Georgina Bekken
Sheridan performed in Griffin’s production of Jump for Jordan,
and co-wrote and performed in the Griffin Independent production
Nosferatutu. She was part of Griffin Studio in 2016. Her other
recent performance credits include: for Belvoir: The Cat/The Dog;
for Big hART: Blue Angel, Hip Bone Sticking Out; for Darlinghurst
Theatre: Gaybies; for GFO: An Officer and a Gentleman; for
Hayes Theatre Company: The Bald Soprano, Cabaret, Charlie
Brown, Calamity Jane, DreamSong, Frogger and Smudge,
Miss Julie, Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah, Threepenny Opera; for
Melbourne Theatre Company: The Beast, North by Northwest, The
Speechmaker; for Opera Australia: Carmen, Fiddler on the Roof,
My Fair Lady; for Sydney Theatre Company: Muriel’s Wedding. Her
musical Songs for the Fallen won Best Musical and Outstanding
Actress at the New York Music Theatre Festival, and has toured to
Sydney Festival, Arts Centre Melbourne, and Brisbane Festival. Her
cabaret Mrs Bang: A Series of Seductions in 55 Minutes appeared
in Brisbane Festival, Sydney Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, Adelaide
Cabaret Festival, the 32nd Stage Song Review in Poland, and the
Opera House. She played Valerie Solanas and Judy Garland in Jim
Sharman’s online film Andy X. TV credits include Rake, All Saints,
Wild Boys, Doctor Blake Murder Mysteries, and various plays for
ABC Radio National. Sheridan is a NIDA graduate.
Emily Havea
Remely Clark / Beverly Ile
Emily is a Sydney-based actor, singer and dancer working across
theatre, music, film and TV. Theatre credits include A Midsummer
Night’s Dream (Bell Shakespeare), BU21 (Old 505), Dogfight
(Hayes Theatre), Sing to Me (Apocalypse Theatre) and Black Birds
(WITS Festival Fatale, re-staged 2018 for Griffin Batch Festival as
Brown Skin Girls). In 2018 Emily plays Calpurnia and Octavius in
Julius Caesar for Bell Shakespeare. Her film credits include Stem
(Goalpost Pictures) and the web series Resting Pitch Face (Google
/ Grumpy Sailor Productions). TV credits include Sisters (Network
10), Growing Up Gracefully (ABC) and Wentworth (season 6).
Emily trained full-time with Danceworld Studios in 2011 and
currently teaches and performs regularly with Retrosweat, the
80’s aerobic workout. An accomplished singer, Emily also works
as a backing vocalist and has sung for the EP launches of Okenyo
and Mirrah Refects. Emily is a 2014 NIDA acting graduate.

Rebecca Massey
Gwen Malkin
Rebecca performed in Borderlines and Ship of Fools for Griffin.
Some of her notable other credits include: for Belvoir: The
Alchemist, The Book of Everything, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,
The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Cloudstreet, Exit the King, It Just
Stopped (for which she won a Green Room Award for Best
Actress), Macbeth, The Seagull, The Small Poppies, Stuff
Happens, The Underpants; for Malthouse Theatre Company:
Tartuffe; for Sydney Theatre Company (STC): After Dinner,
Chimerica, Dinner, Perplex, Travesties; for STC and State
Theatre Company of South Australia: Vere. Rebecca’s recent
film credits include Bad Girl, Accidents Happen, The Black
Balloon, Mask II and Backyard Ashes. Her television credits
include the Working Dog team for Utopia (season 3). Other
roles include Deep Water, The Principal, Utopia, Winter,
Chandon Pictures, Lowdown, Packed to the Rafters, My Place,
City Homicide, Tricky Business, Small Claims and All Saints.
Rebecca’s animation credits include The Kangaroo Creek Gang
and Pacific Heat.
Lucia Mastrantone
Catch
Lucia performed in Griffin’s production of Ladies Day. Some
of her other theatre credits include: for Belvoir: Atlantis, The
Book of Everything, Love and Magic in Mammas Kitchen,
Macbeth, Popular Mechanicals 1 & 2, Scorched, Twelfth Night,
Vicious Angel; for Bell Shakespeare: The Duchess of Malfi; for
Melbourne Theatre Company: Venetian Twins; for State Theatre
Company of South Australia: A Little Drowning, The Merchant
of Venice, Six Characters in Search of an Author; for Sydney
Theatre Company: Mariage Blanc, Romeo and Juliet, Talk.
Lucia’s screen appearances include acclaimed TV series Tangle,
ABC TV’s Rake and AFI Award winning film Look Both Ways.
Lucia is currently co-starring in a new animation comedy series
produced by Working Dog called Pacific Heat.