Dates: May 2026

Company: Black Swan State Theatre Company

Role: Director and Dramaturg

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About

A POWERFUL REIMAGINING OF TIM WINTON'S ACCLAIMED STORY

Change is hard and hope is violent.

Jaxie Clackton is 15, furious, and on the run from the wreckage of his past.

Crossing WA’s saltlands, he's doesn't know exactly what he's looking for… maybe freedom, maybe himself.

What he finds instead is Fintan MacGillis, a disgraced Irish priest living alone in exile, in a crumbling shepherd’s hut at the edge of the world. The two outcasts form an unexpected and fragile bond. But as dangerous secrets surface, man and boy are forced into a reckoning with their past; each confronted with a life-changing choice.

Commissioned by Black Swan and premiering in Perth, this stunning new adaptation of Tim Winton’s beloved novel is brought to the stage by acclaimed playwright Tim McGarry (Boy Swallows Universe, Tim) and director Matt Edgerton.

The Shepherd’s Hut is a raw, poetic and unforgettable exploration of masculinity, isolation, forgiveness…and the violence of hope.

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Responses

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★★★★½ The world premiere of The Shepherd’s Hut, which received a standing ovation on opening night, is an impressive theatrical adaptation of Tim Winton’s acclaimed novel of the same name... this outstanding production is a unique example of Western Australian storytelling, innovative adaptation and world-class theatrical escapism.

​Artshub, Nanci Nott ​

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★★★★★  a story of parables and metaphors...
Limelight Magazine, Jonathan Marshall

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★★★★★ Dangerously honest and strangely tender

​What's the Show?, Yannick Bennoit

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★★★★ The Shepherd’s Hut is a superb theatrical undertaking of transforming Winton’s prose to a live production, capturing the novel’s essence in its profound exploration of the human condition.
Insightfully directed by Matt Edgerton, the 90-minute play is as epic as the harsh landscape it evokes, the unforgiving nature of the WA saltlands replicating the toxic internal conflict of each protagonist as they struggle for survival and hope for redemption in a fragile and unrelenting world.

The West Australian, Tanya MacNaughton

 

The Shepherd’s Hut arrives on stage fully formed: a relentless, bristling realisation of Tim Winton’s 2018 novel of the same name, in an adroit adaptation by Tim McGarry.

Director Matt Edgerton’s self-contained, clear-eyed accomplishment makes the most of its literary roots while also piecing together a unique theatrical language, to underpin the work’s visual and emotional bona fides.

The Conversation, Leah Mercer