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Australian Marriage Act

Format

Live Performance (Stage Show)

Audiences

Recommended age 14+

Watch the promo video

Three young adult actors on a dark stage are deep in a very emotional exchange.

Under the Australian Marriage Act, 17 year-old Victoria is forced to seek the court’s permission to marry her 22 year-old fiancé before she turns 18. After an initial refusal, and fuelled by overwhelming public support, the decision is overturned by the Supreme Court and a precedent is set.

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Based on a fascinating true story, Australian Marriage Act is a frank, humorous and moving account of a young couple’s fight for love. When the couple discovers Victoria is pregnant during the court case, drama develops at breakneck speed with rapid interaction between the courts, family and the media.

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Tackling controversial subject matter, this riveting production deals with the real issues young people face when growing up. Exploring sexual relationships and the age of consent, personal identity, discrimination, privacy and the law, Australian Marriage Act is bold, original and raw theatre.

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Australian Marriage Act premiered at the Queensland In Schools’ Tour in 2001.  Since then, it has toured:

2001 - Victoria: In-Schools’ Tour, Regional Arts Victoria (April)
2002 - Victoria: In-Schools’ Tour, Regional Arts Victoria (April)

Queensland: In-Schools’ Tour, Queensland Arts Council (March)
2007 - Sydney: The Studio, Sydney Opera House(31 July – 3 August)

Melbourne: Fairfax Studio, The Arts Centre (7-10 August)
2008 - Victoria: In-Schools’ Tour, Arena Theatre Company (14 April – 2 May)

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Credits

Writer/Director Marcia Ferguson
Co-Devisors Miria Kostiuk, Genevieve Morris, Jim Russell
Composer Byron Scullin
Set Design Simon Tyrell

2008 Cast Joanne Trentini, Grant Foulkes, Sarah Hallam
2007 Cast Jodie Le Vesconte, Christopher Brown, Katie-Jean Harding
2002 Cast Peta Brady, Tom Davies and Miria Kostiuk
2001 Cast Fiona McLeod, Steve Mouzakis, Lucy Slattery

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Arena Theatre respectfully acknowledges the Dja Dja Wurrung people, and the Taungurung Peoples of the Kulin Nation, the first peoples of country on which Arena Theatre stands. We pay our respects to all of Bendigo's First Peoples, and to their ancestors and elders. Indigenous sovereignty has never been ceded and we acknowledge that we continue to make art on what always was and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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Arena Theatre Company is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.

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