Leah Purcell’s The Drover’s Wife gets new opera life at QPAC
A modern adaptation of Henry Lawson’s classic Australian pioneer bush tale will become the first major production to grace the stage of Queensland’s newest theatre.
A modern adaptation of Henry Lawson’s classic Australian pioneer bush tale is conquering a new creative genre as it becomes the first major production to grace the stage of Queensland’s newest theatre.
The Drover’s Wife – The Opera will debut in May at Queensland Performing Arts Centre’s new 1500-seat Glasshouse Theatre, bringing together Australia’s bush identity and First Nations storytelling with grand European opera traditions.
The adaptation – co-commissioned by QPAC and Opera Australia – will mark the fourth iteration of playwright and actor Leah Purcell’s retelling of the 1892 short story.
Lawson’s classic tells the story of a nameless drover’s wife who stays up all night with a shotgun in hand to protect her four children after a black snake slithers under their bush shack, reflecting the resilience and stoicism of life on the land.
Purcell’s version has been labelled “Tarantino meets Deadwood”. It gives the woman a name, Molly Johnson, and replaces the snake with an Aboriginal man as a metaphor to explore themes of race, domestic violence, and isolation.
The novel was adapted into a film in 2022, after a successful run at Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre in 2016. Purcell was approached by Australian libretto George Palmer to rework the material.
“I always come at the different forms thinking about perspective and what’s going to be different about this story?” Purcell said.
Palmer was attracted to the powerful story that didn’t preach to its audience, but felt real to the pioneer-era experience.
“I thought that is the perfect opera,” he said. “It’s absolutely Australian. It’s riveting, and it brings together the confrontation between Western European culture and Indigenous First Nations culture.
“These two cultures and music traditions come together in the work, and they run side-by-side.”
The show will be performed in English and interwoven with Indigenous language.
Conductor Tahu Matheson said the production worked because the material and musical compositions were equally powerful.
Purcell, who played Molly Johnson in previous adaptations, will pass the reins of the character to her niece, award-winning soprano Nina Korbe. It was not a hard decision.
“As blackfellas, I’m orally giving you a story; I’m blessing her with the next step,” Purcell said.
Korbe will share the stage with Marcus Corowa, who will play Yadaka, an Aboriginal man evading colonial authorities.
QPAC chief executive Rachel Healy said a work of national significance like The Drover’s Wife would be a fitting opening production for the new Glasshouse Theatre.
“It’s a fitting beginning for a theatre built to hold the weight of powerful stories and thrilling performances,” Healy said.
Tickets for the two-week run of The Drover’s Wife – The Opera set for May 13 to 22, 2026, will go on sale on Wednesday via QPAC’s website. The show will also run at the Sydney Opera House from August 7 to 15, 2026.
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