Award-winning playwright Declan Furber Gillick brings his bold and dynamic voice to Melbourne Theatre Company’s mainstage for the first time with Jacky. A sharp, quick-witted play about family, community, work and culture, this ambitious world premiere examines the personal costs of navigating it all in contemporary Australia.

Jacky is a smart, enterprising young blackfella in the big city. He skilfully negotiates the gig economy, skipping neatly from office internships to cultural performances to sex work. Glenn is a white middle-aged record dealer, finalising a divorce and indulging a fantasy that leads him straight to Jacky. When Jacky’s unemployable little brother Keith rolls into town, Jacky’s carefully compartmentalised lives are set to collide. Will he tear at the seams, or can Keith hold him accountable and remind him what really matters?

Directed by Mark Wilson, this MTC NEXT STAGE Original follows Furber Gillick’s multi-award winning play Bighouse Dreaming and features Helpmann Award winner Guy Simon (Jasper Jones) in the title role alongside Greg Stone (A Doll’s House, Part 2). A whip-smart new work from a fresh Aboriginal voice, Jacky is a disarming and original play that
asks what it takes to live a meaningful life.

Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio
– Tue, 20-Jun-2023, 6.30pm