Newsroom Comedy THE TORRENTS By Oriel Gray Opens In June

BLACK SWAN is thrilled to be co-producing the rarely seen Australian classic The Torrents by Oriel Gray with Sydney Theatre Company from Saturday 15 to Sunday 30 June in the Heath Ledger Theatre at the State Theatre Centre of WA.

It's the 1890s in the Goldfields. J.G. Milford has hopped off the train in the small town of Koolgalla to take on a job at the local paper. She's smart, she's savvy, she's incredibly qualified, but nobody knew the J stood for Jenny!

Oriel Gray's The Torrents is a newsroom comedy that rivals George Bernard Shaw. Jenny's arrival coincides with a trailblazing engineer's outrageous idea to bring irrigation to the community and debate rages about whether the town should give up mining for a more sustainable economic future.

Meanwhile, newspaper editor Rufus Torrent and his son Ben are vying for Jenny's favour, even as she pulls apart their chauvinistic assumptions.

The Torrents was written in 1955. That year, it was joint winner of the prestigious Playwrights' Advisory Board Competition with Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. In the role of Jenny, Helpmann Award-winning comedian and actor Celia Pacquola ( ABC's Rosehaven, Utopia) will put the spotlight back on this neglected Australian classic.

Director Clare Watson. Cast Includes Emily Rose Brennan, Tony Cogin, Gareth Davies, Rob Johnson, Geoff Kelso, Sam Longley, Celia Pacquola, Steve Rodgers, Michael Smith

Set & Costume Designer: Renée Mulder, Lighting Designer: Lucy Birkinshaw, Sound Designer/Composer: Joe Paradise Lui, Dramaturg: Virginia Gay.