ANNE Brooksbank’s All My Love – the secret love affair of two Australian literary greats – comes to the Potato Shed for three shows only this weekend.
Still revered across Australia, Henry Lawson is one of the nation’s favourite writers and poets.
His contemporary, Mary Gilmore, was a literary icon and radical socialist.
Both were heroes of literature that had enormous influence over each other. Both were later the face of Australia’s currency.
Both were secretly betrothed.
At the end of the 19th Century, Mary Gilmore was introduced to the young Henry Lawson.
As their friendship developed, Mary found herself caught in the middle of an intense relationship between Henry and his formidable mother, the suffragette Louise Lawson.
What followed was the beginning of a secret, smouldering love affair, soon thwarted by a devastating deception.
After researching Mary Gilmore’s memoirs, writer Anne Brooksbank first uncovered the tale of loving promises between two of Australia’s most famous writers.
Taken from excerpts from the couple’s surviving letters, this is the first time Henry and Mary’s forbidden relationship has been brought to the professional stage.
The show is directed by the award-winning Denny Lawrence and stars Dion Mills as Henry Lawson and Kim Denman as Mary Gilmore.
The All My Love 17-week Australia-wide tour by HIT Productions had its world premiere on 17 July last year, and will tour until March this year.
The play shows at 8pm this Friday and 2pm and 8pm Saturday.
Tickets are: adult $36, concession $32 and students $20.
