''...highly entertaining with engaging and committed performances.''
Theatre Thoughts, 2025
''Just a great balance of raw emotion, humour and just great storytelling.''
Audience,
Merrigong Theatre,2024
Thoroughly relatable humour, staggering humanity...and pushy Aunties from the ancestral plane!
Engulfed by nostalgia, a woman stands at the funeral of a primary school friend that she hasn’t seen in years. As she remembers her 90’s childhood in a close-knit suburban Catholic community, she questions how their lives diverged.
An unlikely coming of (middle) age story about facing the uncomfortable realities of the past and living in the present.
Content Warnings: this show infers suicide and child sexual abuse. 16+.
Concept /Co-writer/Performer Rose Maher
Co-writer/Performer Alison Bennett
Director Ali Gordon with additional direction by Jo Turner
Original Performer/Devisor Jane Phegan
Performer Martelle Hammer
Production Designer Andrea Espinoza
Lighting Designer Chloe Weeks
Sound Designer Gail Priest
Movement Director Cloé Fournier
The Cardinal Rules was first developed in 2020 under Kate Champion, through the MERRIGONGX & Performing Lines Digital Arts Residency. MERRIGONGX has supported two further developments (2021 & 2022-2023), the MERRIGONGX Performance season in 2024 & Made In Wollongong at Sydney Fringe in 2025.
We acknowledge Dharawal Country on which significant periods of development of this work took place.
Special thanks to Annie Clapton & Leland Keane from Merrigong Theatre for their ongoing support.
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The Cardinal Rules was also supported through the Theatre and Performance Studies Artist Residency at the University of Sydney, The Greenhouse National Artists Residency at HotHouse Theatre, Erth Visual & Physical Inc. & Shopfront's Open Shop Program.
