Merrigong Theatre Company’s annual artists’ program, MERRIGONGX presents Lucy Heffernan’s Dog People, a new musical about dogs and death at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre from the 19th June to 21st June 2025.
Tuning into the music of dogs, Heffernan has composed 10 original songs, creating an exciting new work that explores themes of love, loyalty and loss.
Using the language of alt rock, pop and love ballads Dog People explores what it is to be human… perhaps people aren’t that different from dogs after all?
Lucy Heffernan is an award-winning actor, singer-songwriter and theatre-maker. Her critically acclaimed one woman show Party Girl (MERRIGONGX 2019, Crack Theatre Festival, Adelaide Fringe, KXT) won the Week Four award for Best Theatre/Physical Theatre at the 2023 Adelaide Fringe Festival and made its international debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2024.
Heffernan will be joined by director Tim Maddock (Sydney Theatre Company’s Like A Fishbone) and performers Byron Davis (University of Wollongong’s YEAH, NAH!), Annie Byron (Sydney Theatre Company’s Mosquitoes) and Geoff Morrell (Amazon Prime’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power).
Lucy Heffernan said: “After presenting my debut season of Party Girl in 2019, MERRIGONGX has generously supported the development of Dog People over the past three years. I’m excited to bring this new work to life at Merrigong. It feels like coming home.”
MERRIGONGX places artists and their practice at the centre of their community. From in-house creative developments to full-blown public presentations of new work, and everything in between, MERRIGONGX provides independent artists with financial, technical, marketing, and artistic resources.
June 19 – 21
Bookings: https://merrigong.com.au/shows/dog-people/
