Year 9 Reflect on Sister Mary Mother of the Cross Production

Liana Kazzi and Keira Yazbeck

“On Wednesday, our Year 9 cohort shared an exciting experience while watching a captivating dramatisation of the life of St Mary MacKillop. This incursion gave us insight into the life of St Mary of the Cross and devolved into her inspiring journey as well as all the setbacks she faced. The actors made the play not only entertaining but engaging, even getting our peers involved, and because of this, we all learnt so much! We gained a deeper understanding of her life and how the Sisters of St Joseph were established, seamlessly connecting with the broader topic we have been studying in Catholic Studies – the Church in Australia. The performance offered us valuable insights into the struggles and successes of St Mark MacKillop and we will take the information we learnt and apply it in our current topic. Overall, we had so much fun, which made this an enjoyable experience for everyone involved.”

Logno Halsona

“The St. Mary MacKillop incursion was both enjoyable and educational because it successfully held our attention with humour and interactive activities throughout the play. It also gave us insight into Mary Mackillop’s struggles and demonstrated how her life’s work influenced the growth of the Australian Catholic Church.” 

Tiara Lie

“The play on Mary Mackillop’s life we watched in Brescia gave us a visual and interactive understanding of her life and how she has impacted the Catholic Church. This topic connects to our Year 9 religion classes as we have been learning about The Catholic Church in Australia where Mary Mackillop the first Australian Saint left a significant impact by establishing schools as her vision was to provide education for underprivileged children.” 

Victoria A Pandis

“Our first unit in Year 9 Catholic studies mainly centres on the history of the Catholic Church within Australia. Such is why the play about Mary Mackillop that we watched on the 28th of February 2024, was extremely interesting and extended our understanding of such an important figure of Australia’s history. The play started with foreshadowing Mackillop’s death, and recounted the events of her life starting with her vows for becoming a nun at the age of twenty-three to her death much later. A troupe of just two (one playing Mary Mackillop, the other every other character) and a stage with only three standing blocks counterintuitively managed to engross us. It was nothing over the top, not with a hint of grandiose, and yet with their acting alone, were we able to imagine what they wanted the setting to look like. They even managed to conjure audience participation by inviting some of us to enter the “stage”, acting as specific (albeit made up) characters. If these spontaneous actors managed to hold in their laughter for their situation, they could sometimes deliver their lines to move the plot along. A very commendable way for an audience to have fun during a play. The only criticism that I have for this play was their partial censorship of Mary Mackillop’s excommunication, instead portraying the excommunicator (Bishop Sheil) as an egoist threatened by Mackillop’s refusal of obedience and not a man incorrectly punishing a nun for her reporting a fellow priest’s deplorable crimes. An interesting touch indeed. Regardless, the play was an enjoyable hour both educational and entertaining that all of us would recommend for year groups to follow.”

Peggy Hammond

“On Wednesday my year group had the privilege of viewing a play about the life of Australia’s first saint, Mary MacKillop. The play strongly portrayed the incredible life of Mary MacKillop, showing her hardships and determination to fight for justice and education. It also highlighted how hard it must have been for St Mary MacKillop to take on a leadership role in a Church that was solely governed by men, as a young woman. It was inspiring to see how she overcame challenges with unwavering faith and perseverance. The performance displayed to me the importance of standing up for what is right and never losing hope in the face of adversity.”