The Siren’s Return - powerful female stories drawing on First Nations and western mermaid mythology

Though the Siren’s Return is not about her life, Auntie Marlene Cummins says that the stories told in this new musical mirror her own lived experience growing up in the 50’s and 60’s in Queensland when racism and prejudice were overt. The production presents a metaphor for the way country survives and keeps going despite its hardships.

Auntie Marlene Cummins is Australia's foremost Indigenous blues performer, singer, songwriter, painter, broadcaster, actor, dancer and activist. Source: Alina Gozin’a

The Siren’s Return, Merrigong Theatre Company’s first production of 2022 will see them leave their home at Illawarra Performing Arts Centre and take to a different stage: outdoors against the vista of the Port Kembla Pool at dusk

The new musical draws on oral histories collected from women living across different eras of the steel town, as well as First Nations and western mermaid mythology.

Auntie Marlene Cummins performs in the new musical alongside a high-calibre team of creatives and vocalists including Alice Ansara, Matilda Brown, Jeannie Lewis, Billie Rose Prichard and Kerrie Sweeney.