It’s a story years in the making and one with a happy ending that makes it perfect for the stage.
Back to Bilo, a collaboration between Belloo Creative and Queensland Theatre, is based on the true story of the Nadesalingams, a Tamil family forced to leave their Australian home and thrown into detention.
The people of Biloela had welcomed Nades Murugappan and Priya Nadesalingam and daughters Kopika and Tharnicaa after they fled war-torn Sri Lanka, only for the family to be persecuted by the Australian government.
Four years after settling happily in Biloela, there was a knock on the door and the family was ripped away in a dawn raid. Their story could have ended there, but a brave band of Biloela women wouldn’t give up on them.
Fighting alongside the young refugee family, they launched a grassroots, people-powered campaign that galvanised hundreds of thousands of ordinary Australians, who demanded the family be brought back to Bilo.
The play chronicles the family’s ordeal, including their time in immigration detention. It also tells the story of the community’s strong campaign to bring them home to Biloela, a small town in central Queensland colloquially known as Bilo.
The advent of the Albanese government following the 2022 federal election ruled a line under their nightmare. And while it was a good result, the writer of Back to Bilo, Belloo Creative’s Katherine Lyall-Watson, said it was a cautionary tale.
“It has a happy ending but there’s another reason Priya Nadesalingam wanted us to do a story,” Lyall-Watson said.
“She wanted to make sure other refugees don’t have to go through the same thing.
“She is acutely aware of how many people are in a similar position. So, while it’s a wonderful happy ending for this family, there is an awareness that it’s not over for other people.”
The heartwarming play, to be presented at the Bille Brown Theatre in South Brisbane in September, is part of this year’s Brisbane Festival. It’s also one of the jewels in the crown of Queensland Theatre’s 2025 program.
Tickets are selling fast, because everyone knows this story and many of us feel we have a stake in it, having morally supported the family throughout their ordeal.
The idea for the play came from theatre director Matt Scholten, who asked Lyall-Watson to come on as writer.
Lyall-Watson has form in this field, having written other plays based on real events, including Motherland (stories of three women from different times and places, united by their experiences of exile and displacement); Rovers (a contemporary comedy drama), and Boy, Lost… a true story of a boy’s lifelong search for his mother, adapted from writer Kristina Olsson’s award-winning memoir of the same name.
After developing the original concept for Back to Bilo, Scholten passed the baton to Belloo Creative with Caroline Dunphy as director and dramaturg Kathryn Kelly working with Lyall-Watson as writer to bring it to fruition.
“For me, it has been four years of work, researching and writing,” Lyall-Watson said.
“It has been a long journey but it’s a nice, swift 70 minutes in the theatre.”
Of course, it may have had a different ending without a change of government. As it is, Lyall-Watson feels the plight of Priya and Nades and their two Australian-born daughters showed Australian authorities and certain politicians (including wannabe PM and former Liberal leader Peter Dutton) in an ugly light.
“That wasn’t the Australia we know,” she said.
“But the family is not bitter at all. We can’t imagine what they went through but it’s astonishing because they just have a huge amount of gratitude and they thank Australians that they are safe and can get on with their lives in Biloela.”
There is film footage in the play, based on extensive interviews, and there are re-enactments of what the family went through.
“The deportation scene is quite harrowing,” Lyall-Watson said.
“I wanted to make sure Priya and Nades were prepared for it. That last thing we want to do is traumatise them.”
The play also includes the story of the people who fought for them, notably social workers Bronwyn Dendle and Angela Fredericks and immigration lawyer Simone Cameron, who all appear as characters in the play using their real words.
Lyall-Watson visited Biloela five times during the project and was shaping up for another visit when we spoke.
A public reading of the work-in-progress was held in the Biloela Civic Hall in 2024 as part of the WOW (Women of the World) Festival. It has been worked on since then, adding and subtracting along the way. Tamil language and cultural consultants were also brought in.
WOW’s Cathy Hunt described the play as “a must-see production about the triumph of the human spirit and the power of community”.
Back to Bilo is the remarkable true account of the family’s ordeal in the nightmare limbo of immigration detention, a story of how love is stronger than fear and of how persistence and togetherness can win against crushing odds.
The cast features Liz Buchanan as Bronwyn, Matt Domingo as Nades, Sarah McIntosh as Simone, Erika Naddei as Angela, Menaka Thomas as Uru and Leah Vandenberg as Priya.
It seems only fitting that the play should have its world premiere at Brisbane Festival in the Bille Brown Theatre before it goes on to the Darwin and Perth festivals. The late Bille Brown, a Queensland theatre icon, just happened to hail from Biloela, and was even known as “the boy from Biloela”.
He may be up there looking down with a smile on his face when this play comes to the stage in the theatre named in his honour. A warning. Take some tissues or a hanky.
Back to Bilo plays from September 3-16 as part of Brisbane Festival. It will be presented later at the Perth and Darwin festivals.
This story was first published on InReview
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