Based on the true story of David Warren, inventor of the flight recorder that is now standard in every airplane around the world, Black Box premiered to a standing ovation at QPAC’s Cremorne Theatre.

This niche and novel new musical was written and composed by Paul Hodge and this world premiere season is directed by David Berthold.

Michael Cormick in Black Box. Photo supplied

Inspired by the loss of his father in a plane crash when he was a child, David Warren is determined to make a career of studying planes to improve their safety. As the jet age dawns, while working for the Australian Aeronautical Research Laboratories, he conceives a device that could record the final moments of a flight before a crash.

Warren’s outspoken nature and hard-headedness don’t win him many friends, but with the encouragement of his boss, Lawrence Coombes, he continues to work on the recorder despite layers of bureaucracy and repeated rejections.

As we all know now, Warren’s invention was eventually mandated worldwide, but Black Box also shows his single-minded focus taking him away from his faith and his family, as his wife struggles to raise four children...