Theatre 180 was founded in 2018 to perform Western Australian stories. Their latest production relates the escape of six Irish Republicans from Fremantle jail in 1876. The episode has been the subject of many retellings, ever since celebratory diaries, accounts, illustrations and document compilations were distributed across the Irish diaspora in the months immediately afterwards. Peter FitzSimons’ rousing popular history is among the best versions, and I am assisting WAAPA PhD student Kelly Curran to devise a new musical on the subject.

Closely following FitzSimons’ account, Theatre 180’s script is by Stuart Halusz, who is also the director, and Myles Pollard, who also performs. Their adaptation begins with the planning carried out in America, then the voyage of the Catalpa from the US to Fremantle, and finally the daring deed itself, complete with last-minute changes and the perilous longboat journey to the waiting ship as they dodged the authorities’ vessel. The dialogue is imagined, but the major characters are real, and the authors take few liberties.

Few of the historical documents or records are actually shown on screen, beyond a few maps, photos, and an 1876 lithograph of the Catalpa. Historical...