Campion Decent – January 12 2020

In commemoration of the Canberra bushfires – 8-22 January 2003

and other catastrophic bushfires:
Black Saturday (VIC) 7/2/2009
Ash Wednesday (VIC) & Ash Wednesday II (SA) 16/2/1983
Ash Wednesday (SA) 20/2/1980
Black Tuesday (TAS) 7/2/1967

Campion is a playwright, dramaturge and freelance Arts worker. His other plays include Collar of Thistles, The Pearls of Heaven, Shootings, Baby X and Three Winters Green. Campion holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts, a Master of Arts (Theatre Studies), and is a graduate of the NIDA Playwrights Studio. He has been an affiliate writer with the Sydney Theatre Company’s New Stages and a writer-in-residence for the University of Wollongong as well as Chair of the Australian National Playwrights’ Centre, Literary Manager for the Sydney Theatre Company, festival director for the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras and the Next Wave Festival. Director of the Biting Dog Theatre Festival for High School Students and a member of the HotHouse Theatre artistic Directorate and the NSW Arts advisory Council, Campion is dedicated to supporting the work of a new generation of Australian artists.

Embers
Playlab Press, 2008; ISBN 9780908156931
Full length; 3 female, 4 male
Audience age: Young adult; adult
In January 2003, a dry storm ignited over 80 fires in Victoria’s Northeast and Gippsland. Based on interviews with residents of the region, Campion Decent has fashioned an extraordinary account of the fires. The heart stopping tales of survival, the courage and endurance of communities put to the test, the chilling evocations of the wave of heat that roared through untouched valleys, and the mountains of sandwiches volunteers anxiously prepared. Gripping, lyrical, and deeply moving, Embers is the story of a fire – and the people who conquered it. Selected for the Unit 4 Theatre Studies Playlist in Victoria.

Unholy Ghosts
Australian Script Centre, 2014
Full length; 1 female, 2 male
‘A successful man of the theatre finds a front row seat in a strange new tragicomedy: the undignified death of his parents. There’s not much time left for either his ailing mother the actress, still prone to melodramatics, or his father the salesman, still flogging his side of the story. But there’s just enough time to open old wounds and have a jolly good go at new ones. At once personal and universal, Unholy Ghosts invites us to reflect on the narrative turning point that visits all our life stories. It’s an irreverent, life-affirming take on loss with all the inherent funniness of a good funeral.’ – Griffin Theatre Company, 2013