Colleen McCullough's TIM

An unlikely friendship…

Tim is a new Australian play based on the novel of the same title by Colleen McCullough. Filled with notions of love, loss and acceptance, and set in the modern day, this seminal Australian story has been sensitively adapted for the stage by playwright Tim McGarry (Boy Swallows Universe, There's A Sea in My Bedroom).

Central to the story is an unorthodox love that develops between Mary, a career driven business executive in her mid-50s, and Tim, a handsome 25-year-old labourer with a mild intellectual disability. Tim has grown up in a small but loving working-class family who have tried to shelter him from the cruelness of the world. He is often the brunt of ridicule by those around him, particularly his uncharitable work mates.

What begins as a chance meeting between them, soon develops into a life-changing relationship for both. Tim's protective family grapple with a deep suspicion of sexual coercion, a disability system that has failed them and the devastating loss of Tim's mother.

Whilst Tim's disability is never labelled, it is a constant, underlying theme, embedded in a story that explores the importance of embracing differences, opening oneself to the fullness of life and the opportunities it has to offer.

Directed by award-winning director Darren Yap (Diving for Pearls, Miracle City, Letters to Lindy), Tim's gripping and controversial storyline catapulted Colleen McCullough to international fame. She remains Australia's highest selling author, with over 80 million books sold worldwide.

Duration approximately 90 mins no interval
Age 14+

Valerie Bader - Joy / Emily

Valerie's extensive career has encompassed theatre, film and television.

Valerie has worked with just about every main stage theatre company in the country. She recently appeared for ATYP in the 2022 revival of M.Rock. Her other theatre credits include TALK, Children of the Sun, Morning Sacrifices, Wharf Revues, Falsettos, Just Bent, Summer Rain, Darlinghurst Nights and King of Country (STC), M Rock – 2014 (STC/ATYP), Australia Day, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Dinkum Assorted (MTC), Killing Katie and The Appleton Ladies' Potato Race (Ensemble), Cursed, Paramatta Girls, Barmaids (Belvoir), Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam (Riverside), Funny Girl in Concert (SSO), Thomas Murray and the Upside Down River (Critical Stages), The Comedy of Errors (Bell Shakespeare), Secret Bridesmaids' Business, Competitive Tenderness (Playbox), Tartuffe, The Winter's Tale, The Golden Age, Buffalos Can't Fly, Flash Jim Vaux, The Mystery of Mulligan's Gold, There's a Ghost on Clarke Island, The Venetian Twins, Desert Flambé (Nimrod), Entertaining Mr Sloane (State Theatre SA), Horrortorio (La Boite), A Christmas Carol, Rum for Your Money (Marian Street Theatre), Inside Out (CDP), The Floating World, Wicked Sisters and Monkey Trip (Griffin). She has also garnered Helpmann, Sydney Critics' and Glug award nominations.

Recent feature film appearances include: Wish You Were Here, Black & White & Sex and Rip Tide.

Television includes: Bump, Devil's Playground, Dead Lucky, The Let Down, The Chuck In, All Saints, East of Everything, Murder Call, GP and A Country Practice.

Akkshey Caplash - Jim / Nate / Raj

Akkshey was born and raised in Punjab, India. He migrated to Australia when he was 13 years old and after a three year stay in Sydney, he moved to Adelaide. From a young age he has been enchanted by film and TV and would spend hours watching and rewatching movies and TV shows, to the point that he was able to recite dialogues along with the main characters.

He studied at The University of Adelaide and completed a double degree in commerce and finance but felt a longing for something else. The desire to be an actor was always there, but it wasn't until the first year of university after watching a play, it became evident as he realised what had been missing. He enrolled in an acting course the very next day. Having completed university and acting training around the same time, it was clear to him where his passion lay and he has been pursuing acting ever since - which brought him back to Sydney in 2015.

Akkshey started his journey on stage in 2013 in an Adelaide Fringe production called Loaded Heart and in 2014 played the role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet for The University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. Since then, he has worked in both film and television. His television credits include titles such as Janet King, Neighbours, The Secrets She Keeps, Home and Away and Doctor Doctor. In film, Akkshey has worked on both features and shorts. In 2015 he had the opportunity to work on the fifth instalment of Pirates Of The Caribbean. 2017 saw him land the role of Brian in the independent feature film Kairos which received great critical acclaim and can currently be seen on SBS On Demand. In 2019 he worked alongside James Cromwell in the romantic comedy Never Too Late (Amazon) and in 2020 he played the lead role in a sci-fi short film Science+

Akkshey most recently played a lead role Babur in the two-hander play Guards At The Taj at Riverside Theatres (with incredible reviews). He is thrilled to be part of this wonderful new production of Tim.

Jeanette Cronin - Mary

A graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Jeanette has worked extensively in theatre, film and television. Recent theatre appearances include Return to the Dirt (QLD Theatre) and a National tour of Letters to Lindy (Merrigong Theatre) in which she portrayed Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton. Jeanette has also performed in several sell-out seasons of Queen Bette (G.bod Theatre), a one-woman show she co-created with director, Peter Mountford about the life of screen legend, Bette Davis.

Film credits include Christmas on the Farm, The Bystander Story and seminal Australian films, The Boys and Blackrock. Jeanette has also appeared in numerous television series, notably, The Tourist, Doctor Doctor, Rake, Secret City and Janet King and web-series Patricia Moore, Gut Feeling and The Wrong Kind of Black.

Jeanette is also a playwright and screenwriter with three produced plays, I Love You Now (Darlinghurst Theatre), I Hate You My Mother (Redline Productions) and Tell Me Again (Old 505), which also received a workshop and rehearsed reading at the Arcola Theatre in London in 2019. Two recent plays were both shortlisted for major awards in 2020. Rest, which deals with domestic violence in regional Australia was in the final ten nominees for the prestigious Alpine International Playwriting Award and Victim, which explores sexual harassment in the entertainment industry was among the five nominees for The Silver Gull Playwriting Award. In 2022 Jeanette was again nominated for the Silver Gull with her pandemic family dramedy, God in Space.

Recent screenplays include Poo Boy, an episode of It's Fine, I'm Fine, a funny-sad web-series about therapy which had its international premiere in competition at Cannes Short Series 2002 and its Australian premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival, also in 2022 and Shattered, the Australian component of the multi award-winning film, LockEdown Locked In, an international project reflecting the spike in domestic violence during the COVID 19 pandemic which garnered Jeanette, along with her international colleagues, Best Original Screenplay at the Athens International Art Film Festival, 08, 2021.

In 1996, Jeanette was the recipient of the inaugural Mike Walsh Fellowship.

Ben Goss - Tim

Ben is a 2019 graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, where he was a recipient of the Irene Mitchell Award for Excellence.

His theatre credits include A Resourceful Hero Struggling Against Incredible Odds (Rawcus / Malthouse); Leopard Print Loincloth (Kissing Booth); A View from the Bridge (VCA); Macbeth (VCA); Mad Forest (VCA) and Fucking A (VCA). He also appeared in the music video Fear for alt rock band Terra (Crow River Visuals). Ben was a 2022 participant in Midsumma Pathways – a mentorship program for LGBTQIA+ artists with disability.

Andrew McFarlane - Ron / Harry

Andrew is a much-loved and instantly recognizable face, both on stage and screen. A NIDA graduate, Andrew has appeared in numerous main stage productions around Australia, playing diverse roles ranging from Shakespearian tragedy to Williamson satire. Theatre credits include Mary Stuart, Cyrano de Bergerac and Woman in Mind, The Normal Heart for STC, The Heretic and Gulliver's Travels for MTC, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? A Month in the Country and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for Queensland Theatre, The Seagull and Arcadia for Black Swan I Perth, Family Values and Dreams in White for Griffin, Love Letters, Let the Sunshine and Nothing Personal for Ensemble Theatre.

He has starred in many of this country's most successful TV dramas: The Sullivans, Patrol Boat, The Flying Doctors, and has been a regular presenter on Playschool for the ABC. Other TV includes: The Alice, Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities, Secret City, Miss Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries, Riot, Glitch, Seven Types of Ambiguity, Newton's Law, The Code, Cleverman, A Place to Call Home, Janet King, & Love Child amongst many others. Andrew won an ASTRA for Most Outstanding Performance in Drama and was nominated for an AACTA award for his performance in the TV drama series Devil's Playground for Foxtel. Upcoming series soon to air are The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart on Amazon Prime and It's Fine I'm Fine on SBS.

Andrew's feature film credits include Truth alongside Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett, Little White Lies, Returning Lily, Boulevard of Broken Dreams Born to Run and Break of Day.

Julia Robertson - Dee

Julia Robertson is an actor, director, and musician. She is the current Artistic Director of the award-winning devising group the Little Eggs Collective.

Acting credits include Jess and Joe Forever (Belvoir, 2019), The Astral Plane (Belvoir, 2019), The Real Thing (Sydney Theatre Company, 2019), The Oyster (Critical Stages, 2021) and Wherever She Wanders (Griffin Theatre Company, 2021). Julia also stars in the film Hot Mess that is currently airing on Netflix and voiced the audiobook Don't Fall by Sophie Smith.

Julia has studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute (Method Acting Intensive, New York 2017) and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Acting Shakespeare Intensive, London 2022).