2002. A powerful drama. 2m, 1w. My Henry Lawson is a powerful new play that confronts those two central icons of the Australian imagination - Henry Lawson and 'Banjo' Paterson. Covering the years 1896-1902, this revealing play - in turns comic and searing - examines the traumatic marriage of Henry and Bertha Lawson, and confronts those two enduring icons of the Australian imagination, Lawson and Banjo Paterson. In 1896 Paterson is Lawson's solicitor as well as his rival bush poet. Stunned to discover that the cash-strapped, heavy-drinking Lawson has secretly married a 19-year old nurse, Paterson tries to advise his friend and client. The play follows Henry and Bertha to the goldfields of Western Australia, and then to London, literary heart of the Empire. Paterson also comes to London, on assignment from the Sydney Morning Herald, and finds them in a desperate condition and with Bertha's sanity under attack. But, returning to Sydney, it's Henry who attempts suicide, from a North Head cliff top. Frank Hatherley's revealing play - both comic and searing - examines the tramatic Lawson marriage and the essential differences between Lawson and Paterson. The first chroniclers of a new nation's myths and characters. Contact DSP for perusal details (david@davidspicer.com)