Three Plays: Rising Water, Signs of Life, Shrine

Marked by Winton's signature ear for dialogue, these are three searing plays about survival, mourning, and the remarkable gift of redemption.

Winton's first play, Rising Water, sees middle-aged fringe-dwellers Col, Baxter and Jackie living aboard neighbouring boats in a crowded marina. Each of them nurses secret wounds and anxieties, and although their vessels are ocean-going craft, none seems likely to ever leave the safe confines of the harbour. They are hiding from the world behind and beyond.

Signs of Life marks the return of Georgie Jutland and Lu Fox from Winton's Miles Franklin-winning novel Dirt Music. Alone in her farmhouse at night, Georgie hears noises out on the highway—car doors, voices, weeping. Then a figure emerges from the darkness. A man seeking help. His sister is out in the car, screaming. Can Georgie trust them? And what to do when guests settle in and show no inclination of moving on?

In Shrine, Adam and Mary Mansfield are struggling to come to terms with their son's death in a car crash. Adam has sold his winery, and his trips to the beach house have become more frequent—anything to avoid Mary's smouldering grief. One day a young woman arrives at his door. She has something to share—the story of his son's final hours.