Aidan Fennessy (died 13 September 2020) was an Australian

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

, stage director and actor, known for his work with the

Melbourne Theatre Company The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, it is the oldest professional theatre com ...

(MTC), where he was at one time associate director. Fennessy's career began in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in the 1990s, involving his talents as writer, director and actor. He acted in a number of television series, including ''

Neighbours ''Neighbours'' is an Australian television soap opera that has aired since 18 March 1985. It was created by television executive Reg Watson. The Seven Network commissioned the show following the success of Watson's earlier soap '' Sons and ...

'', '' Introducing Gary Petty'', ''

Blue Heelers ''Blue Heelers'' is an Australian police drama series that was produced by Southern Star Group and ran for twelve years on the Seven Network, from 1994 to 2006. Although based around the policing of the town, the series generally depicted th ...

'' and '' City Homicide''. In 2012, he was the programming director at MTC. His play, ''National Interest'' (2012), was commissioned by the MTC and the Black Swan State Theatre Company (

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

) on the theme of the

Balibo Five The Balibo Five was a group of journalists for Australian commercial television networks who were murdered in the period leading up to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. The Balibo Five were based in the town of Balibo in East Timor (then P ...

. Fennessy's cousin, Tony Stewart, was one of the five journalists who became known as the Balibo Five after they were murdered in Balibo,

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

, in 1975. The play focuses on Stewart's family, in particular his mother and sister, as well as the Indonesian Government's cover-up, and the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

's handling of the affair. The play incorporates media coverage, speeches, court transcripts, and other factual material, into the "deeply personal story". It was performed in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

and Melbourne during 2012. Fennessy had two children with his partner, the writer Nova Weetman. He died from cancer during one of the

lockdown A lockdown () is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison protocol that us ...

s in Melbourne arising from the

COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia was a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first confirmed case in Aust ...

Selected works

Plays written by Fennessy include: *''The Architect'' *''National Interest'' *''What Rhymes With Cars And Girls'' (a musical based on the album '' What Rhymes With Cars And Girls'' by Tim Rogers, staged by MTC in 2015) *''Chilling and Killing My Annabel Lee'' ( Playbox/Malthouse), *''The House On The Lake'' (

Black Swan The black swan (''Cygnus atratus'') is a large Anatidae, waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia, the black swan is nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent ...

) *''The Way Things Work'' (

Griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (; Classical Latin: ''gryps'' or ''grypus''; Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk ...

, Red Stitch)

Accolades

*''The Trade'' (2002), written for the

Melbourne International Comedy Festival The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the largest international comedy festival in the world. First held in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typically starti ...

, won the 2002 Barry Award (since renamed the

Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award The Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award (formerly the Barry Award and the Stella Award) is an annual prize presented to the most outstanding comedy act at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. History It has been awarded since 1 ...

. *''Chilling and Killing My Annabel Lee'' (2006) won the Wal Cherry Award and was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award. *''National Interest'' (2012, script) won the People's Choice award at the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2012. *''What Rhymes With Cars And Girls'' (2015) was nominated for a Helpmann Award for Best New Australian Work in 2015.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fennessy, Aidan 21st-century Australian dramatists and playwrights Australian male dramatists and playwrights 2020 deaths Year of birth missing Australian actors