Set to open at the Malthouse Theatre, this new production charts the tale of a Melbourne folk hero and his controversial act of bravery that sent ripples around the world.
Receiving its world premiere at Melbourne’s famed Malthouse Theatre on 13 February 2025, Truth is the newest work from celebrated Australian playwright Patricia Cornelius – and its subject matter makes for very timely viewing.
Revolving around the controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Truth aims to investigate the delicate, often dangerous, balance between truth and authoritarian power.
Truth
- February 13 to March 8
- Malthouse – Merlyn Theatre
- Tickets are on sale now
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As Cornelius herself says of this new and deeply timely work – debuting several months after Assange’s return to Australia as a free man – it’s been “both terrifying and exhilarating to write a play that is about the fight for a better, more transparent and decent world.”
The premiere staging of this new work is the brainchild of Cornelius and her long-time collaborator, director Susie Dee, who first worked together on 1987’s Lilly and May.
A work that also debuted at Malthouse, it featured stage design from the late Michael Leunig, proving that Melbourne artists and creatives have long revolved around the output of Cornelius and Dee.
Now, almost 40 years since the beginning of their creative partnership, Cornelius and Dee have crafted a homegrown play about famed Melbournian Julian Assange, set to debut in the Malthouse Theatre.
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Of the story’s universal subject matter, Cornelius ponders, “Truth, and how it has been denied us; truth and how many have suffered terribly for telling it; truth and how we are growing numb to it—what better material for a play?”
Beginning in 1980s Melbourne, Truth depicts a group of adolescent hackers infiltrating high-security organisations like NASA and the Pentagon, simply out of sheer curiosity. This teenage rebellion soon unravels into a dark exploration of the compulsions behind – and the consequences of – speaking out about the truth and those who want to distort it.
The play merges the line between biographical recounts of Assange’s life and a thread of fictional commentary, presenting the controversial whistleblower through five different actors.
One of these performers is Eva Seymour, who says of the ambitious new work, “It’s quite an expansive plot.” Containing this large story into a single poster tagline is, unsurprisingly, a challenge.
Beginning with Assange’s childhood – “not in a very in-depth way,” Eva says, “but more in a thematic way” – the play covers the span of time leading up to his release.
“It covers a lot of the information that was exposed through the function of WikiLeaks,” Eva asserts, “covering key moments throughout the things he influenced. The play covers Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and other instances that were related to WikiLeaks but not specifically about Julian himself.”
In her role within the play’s ensemble, Eva portrays six distinct characters. The malleable nature of these diverse roles is reflective of the flimsy nature of information, and how truth can emerge from beneath these layers.
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The play ends at the point at which Assange is granted his ‘freedom’ – Eva emphasises the air quotes – while underlining the extent to which he is made an example of “against other people who dare to speak out.”
A key point of exploration within the play is how entrenched systems of power operate to ensure the status quo is upheld, something that is ultimately not just tied to WikiLeaks.
“It’s important that we all continue to stand up against things that are inherently wrong, that we allow to happen in our society,” Eva says. She says the play makes a case of “how wrong it is that we allowed, as a society – the Australian government and the world, really – big governments to make an example out of Julian Assange.”
The play strives to redirect perception away from the demonisation of whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning and to instead critically assess the ways in which they’re condemned within society.
“When you look at what they actually did,” Eva says, “it’s hard to not believe in the inherent goodness of their behaviour. Understanding more about what they did and why they did it has definitely given me a fresher perspective on a lot of what went down for WikiLeaks.”
Now more than half a year since Julian Assange returned to Australia, Truth is set to stand as a timely reminder of the importance of speaking out – and the dangers that befall those brave enough to do it.
For tickets to see Truth, running from February 13 to March 8 at the Malthouse Theatre, head here.
This article was made in partnership with the Malthouse Theatre.