DAREBIN, VIC. — Award-winning playwright Shane Woon (A Guide To Being Immortal) continues his exploration of Chinese mythology and Australian culture with an epic love story that transcends space and time. Mixing Chinese fantasy cinema, Boy Love drama and the AFL, his new play is a tender mythic story of love, identity, and the weight of expectation.
The Rabbit God Tu’er Shen has already died for love. Now he’s the god of gay matchmaking, pairing soulmates with a celestial red thread, while searching for the happily-ever-after he never got. Whenever his first love pops up in a new life, Rabbit abandons heaven to follow him, risking his powers and his reputation for just one perfect ending.
The results have always been tragic, chaotic, and occasionally embarrassing.
But now his long-lost lover has returned as Watson, a rising AFL player, and Rabbit is determined that in this lifetime, love will finally go his way.
Directed by Keith Brockett, Rabbit & Watson is a celebration of Chinese Australian identity, blending myths carried across the oceans through an Australian lens and setting.
From the football field to the media scrum to the celestial realm, this is a story about finding true love and what comes after.
“I wrote this play to provide a platform for Chinese Australian artists, and to invite audiences to see and share in our cultural references, humour, and desires,” Shane Woon said.
As a high school teacher, I wanted young diverse people to see and share in the experience of having non-dominant identities seen on stage.
As a footy fan, I wanted to look closely at the pressures that shape the AFL and how its culture affects ideas of queerness, masculinity, and belonging at different levels of society,” Shane Woon said.
- Wednesday, July 15, 2026 | 07:30 PM – 09:30 PM
- Thursday, July 16, 2026 | 07:30 PM – 09:30 PM
- Friday, July 17, 2026 | 07:30 PM – 09:30 PM
- Saturday, July 18, 2026 | 07:30 PM – 09:30 PM
- Sunday, July 19, 2026 | 05:00 PM – 07:00 PM
- Wednesday, July 22, 2026 | 11:00 AM – 01:00 PM
- Wednesday, July 22, 2026 | 07:30 PM – 09:30 PM
- Thursday, July 23, 2026 | 11:00 AM – 01:00 PM
- Thursday, July 23, 2026 | 07:30 PM – 09:30 PM
- Friday, July 24, 2026 | 07:30 PM – 09:30 PM
- Saturday, July 25, 2026 | 07:30 PM – 09:30 PM
- Sunday, July 26, 2026 | 05:00 PM – 07:00 PM
Venue: Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre, 189 High St, Northcote
Tickets: $38 Full. $30 Conc. $33 Darebin Residents. $33 Group 4+. $20 Preview. $10 Blak Tix
