"You ever woken up wonderin if this was gonna be your last?
You ever got that feelin in your stomach as you lay there wonderin?"

Dirty Butterfly tells the tale of three lives linked by the paper-thin walls of their tenement housing, brought together by misfortune.

Trapped in a cycle of poverty and racial discrimination, Amelia and Jason cannot escape the dark and compelling world of their neighbour, Jo, who in turn is dealing with her own horrors.

Blair previously directed Jesus Hopped The A Train (2007) and Ruben Guthrie (2008) for Company B and will co-direct Namatjira later this year. He says:

"Dirty Butterfly is a powerful and brutally honest story that unflinchingly explores issues around guilt, voyeurism, power, class and race. It transcends geographical location and finds itself to be relevant to our society in twenty-first century Sydney, despite the writer’s roots in inner-city London."

Dirty Butterfly was Debbie Tucker Green’s debut play. It premiered at London’s Soho Theatre in 2003. Her other plays include Born Bad (2003, for which she won the Olivier award for Most
Promising Newcomer), Stoning Mary (2005) and Random (2008).

The Guardian described Dirty Butterfly as: "like secret whispers … there is a sly, controlled power in this writing. It is like the promise of a beautiful, new day that suddenly turns bad."

The cast includes Zoe Houghton, Dorian Nkono and Sara Zwangobani, with assistant-direction by Erica Heller-Wagner, set and costume design by Teresa Negroponte, lighting design by Stephen Hawker, and composition and sound design by Steve Francis.

Dirty Butterfly runs from July 8 to August 1.

Visit the website for bookings and more information, or phone (02) 9699 3444.