Through darkness we hear a rumbling roar that thunders and thunders. And then as it suddenly stops, a dull light comes up on a woman in a cotton frock, flanked by two younger women. Over faint, eerie music, the woman speaks: “With a bullet through your neck, numbskull of yours never looked so fine.”

The younger women join in: “Rest in peace Daddy numbskull. Ta ta Daddy you sick bundle of shit. Bye bye Daddy you misery heap of shit.”

So begins Angus Cerini’s play The Bleeding Tree, a grittily lyrical “murder ballad” which starts – bang – with the slaying of a violently abusive man by his wife and two daughters, who have been driven to the point where they can take no more.

^{Shari Sebbens, Airlie Dodds and Paula Arundell in The Bleeding Tree. Photo © Brett Boardman}

The Gothic thriller was given its premiere by Griffin Theatre Company in 2015 after it won the 2014 Griffin Award for new Australian playwriting. Directed by Lee Lewis, the acclaimed production at Sydney’s Stables Theatre won Helpmann Awards for Best Play, Best Director and Best Female Actor (Paula Arundell) as well as Best...