Transparency: A special post-performance Q & A

Co-presented with the Seymour Centre at the University of Sydney

Transparency is a bold new Australian play by outstanding writer Suzie Miller and is the first self-produced show that the Seymour has presented in its 30 year history. Part thriller, part social-drama, Transparency tells the story of Simon, a man who, as a child, committed a terrible crime. The play follows his journey as an adult trying to live an honest life under an assumed identity when no one, not even his wife, knows his true history.

Powerfully written, thought-provoking and deeply moving Transparency was the recipient of the Kit Denton award for brave and courageous writing in 2009. Its World Premiere at the Belfast Festival by the prestigious Ransom Theatre Company garnered extraordinary reviews and provoked much public debate. In Transparency, Miller, a playwright and former lawyer, intelligently investigates the difficulties of criminal rehabilitation and asks whether it is possible to live an honest life whilst maintaining a fundamental deceit.

The Seymour’s production, presented in association with Riverside Productions, will be its Australian Premiere. As part of the University of Sydney, the Seymour seeks to present works that are not only great entertainment but that also provoke enquiry.

Sydney Ideas is pleased to partner with the Seymour Centre and Sydney Law School to present a special Q&A event following the performance on 13 September 2011. Suzie Miller will be joined on stage by Sydney Law Lecturer, Tanya Mitchell to discuss the plays central theme of criminal rehabilitation.


Suzie Miller is a multi-award winning British/Australian playwright and former lawyer. She is a graduate of the Playwrights Studio at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Arts (2000), has a Masters degree in Theatre & Film, and amongst other awards and nominations has won the 2008 National Kit Denton Fellowship for writing with courage; shortlisted for the 2010 Australian Writers Guild Award for drama; the Griffin Award 2009; Winner of Inscription 2009; and 2006: mentored by Edward Albee 2009; Winner 2008 New York Fringe Festival ‘Overall Excellence Award for Outstanding Playwriting’: 2005 Theatrelab award, and has been shortlisted for various Premiers’ awards and AWGIES (Writers Guild awards).

Tanya Mitchell is a lecturer in criminal law at the Sydney Law School, University of Sydney. She has been admitted as a Legal Practitioner to the Supreme Courts of SA and NSW. Her experience is not limited to private practice. She worked for the Aboriginal Legal Service as a Senior Solicitor-Advocate for 5 years (including working with the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency based in East Arnhem Land). In 2006, she returned to South Australia to work as an investigator on the Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry into the sexual abuse of children in State Care under the auspices of the Honourable Mullighan QC.