Sydney Theatre Company’s award-winning production of The Secret River is to play the Edinburgh International Festival in August, marking the company’s EIF debut and the work’s European premiere. It will also travel to the National Theatre in London.

Sydney Theatre Company’s The Secret River. Photo © Heidrun Löhr

An adaptation by Andrew Bovell of Kate Grenville’s acclaimed novel of the same name, The Secret River tells the story of a man exiled from London in the 1800s. When he moves to a penal colony in New South Wales with his family, their presence poses a major disruption to the lives of its Indigenous inhabitants. The play will be seen in its original production by Neil Armfield, whose staging of Brett Dean’s opera Bliss was seen at the Festival in 2010. The production will also retain its score by Iain Grandage, again played live.

“This is a tremendously exciting moment for Sydney Theatre Company and for the cast, creatives and crew for The Secret River,” STC Artistic Director Kip Williams said. “Since the play was commissioned in 2012, it has been the company’s hope to take The Secret River to where Kate Grenville’s novel begins.  We’re very interested to...