Following a sell-out, critically acclaimed premiere season in 2023 and a smash-hit national tour in 2024, one of Australia’s hottest pieces of theatre, Joanna Murray Smith’s political drama Julia, bursts onto the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre stage for an unmissable two-week season from 3rd to 13th September.  

The final of three blockbuster productions in Merrigong’s 2025 season, screen and stage legend Justine Clarke steps into the shoes of Australia’s first, and only, female prime minister, delivering an “electrifying” (The Guardian), and “fearsomely brilliant” (TimeOut) performance, that will be remembered for generations to come.   

In 2012, Julia Gillard gave a speech that sent shockwaves around the world.  

Now, over a decade later, Julia is both a compelling insight into the person behind the mask, and a reflection on the experience of women in contemporary politics. In a thrilling coming together of history and art, this incredible dramatic imagining renders a powerful monologue that takes us through key moments in Prime Minister Gillard’s life, culminating in an electrifying verbatim performance of the ‘misogyny speech’.