YOU KNOW WE BELONG TOGETHER to play its UK premiere at Southbank Centre this August

Photo credit: Toni Wilkinson

Award-winning play You Know We Belong Together will bring its celebrated portrayal of living with Down syndrome to the Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room from 18-20 August for its UK premiere.

Julia Hales leads a cast of six Western Australian actors to draw on their lived experience and tell this joyful celebration of community spirit, calling for better representation of disability on screen and stage.

Julia Hales has watched every single episode of Australian soap opera Home and Away since it first aired in 1988, but she’s never seen another person with Down syndrome in the cast. She dreams of landing a role in her favourite show and finding love. Family, friends, dreams and lovers are all part of Julia Hales’ deeply personal account of her experiences as a daughter, actor and person with Down syndrome. She brings with her the voices and aspirations of a community rarely seen on stage. Part-play, part-live documentary, You Know We Belong Together is an uplifting show about love, loss, family, friendships and the frustrations and aspirations of living with Down syndrome. 

The cast put their own lives on stage, mixing their experiences and personal day-to-day realities with monologues, video, scenes, dance and song. Julia Hales is joined on stage by Joshua Bott, Patrick Carter, Tina Fielding, Mark Junor, Melissa Junor and Lauren Marchbank. Set in the famous diner at Summer Bay regularly seen in Home and Away, the cast bring their talents to help Julia “make a show to help remind non-disabled people that people with Down syndrome are complex and emotional people, like them. That they also have regular desires like love and acceptance.”

Co-writer Finn O’Branagáin said: “Some of the magic of You Know We Belong Together – sorry, the magic of Julia Hales - is that I have been able to do all this with her – researching and conversing and piecing it together, with Julia as both subject and performer. Having Julia as the lead artist has meant that at all times she’s in control of the documentation and presentation of her own story.”

Following its London run, the show will play at Edinburgh International Festival from 24-27 August at the Royal Lyceum Theatre.