The wait is over: the actors bringing Australia’s most beloved fictional family to the stage have been revealed.
On Monday, producers Michael Cassel and Working Dog unveiled the principal cast of The Castle On Stage, the upcoming adaptation of the classic 1997 film.
Loveable patriarch Darryl Kerrigan will be played by veteran actor Justin Smith (Heartbreak High, Wentworth), whose first professional role was in the 1992 Australian tour of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Darryl’s wife – the sweet-natured culinary whiz, Sal – will be portrayed by Christie Whelan Browne, one of Australia’s most highly regarded performers on stage (Muriel’s Wedding the Musical, Singin’ in the Rain) and screen (Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell). “The hardest part about playing Sal is playing a woman whose family enjoys her cooking,” Whelan Browne said.
When asked why Darryl and Sal are one of Australia’s favourite fictional couples, Whelan Browne said, “I think they both feel like they’ve got the better deal. It’s quite simple: everything she does, he thinks is amazing, and vice versa.”
Making his professional theatre debut, Ed Oxenbould (Puberty Blues, Paper Planes) is Dale: the youngest of the four Kerrigan children and a proud digger of holes, who also serves as the play’s narrator. “Dale [still resonates with audiences] because his optimism never goes out of style,” Oxenbould said.
Joel Jackson (Deadline Gallipoli, Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door) is Wayne, the eldest son and model prisoner; while contemporary theatre performer Marcus McKenzie is Steve, a bargain hunter and self-taught “ideas man”. Recent WAAPA graduate Stephanie Graham is the Kerrigan family’s only daughter, Tracey; and Roman Delo (Bump, NCIS: Sydney) is her kickboxing-enthusiast husband, Con Petropoulous.
To say that Australians are enthusiastic about the stage version of The Castle – a David and Goliath battle between the Kerrigan family and a greedy consortium attempting to “compulsory acquire” their home – is an understatement. In May, readers of this masthead voted The Castle Australia’s favourite movie of all time. In July, the film’s creators, Working Dog, announced they had partnered with renowned producer Michael Cassel to bring the story to Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne, where it will make its world premiere in March 2027.
Just 24 hours after tickets went on sale, the production broke a box office record, achieving the highest first-day sales for any play in Her Majesty’s history. Within a week, producers extended the season due to extraordinary demand – and on Monday, they announced a second extension, meaning the show will run until at least mid-May.
In the movie, the Kerrigans relied on landline telephones, The Trading Post newspaper and Australian-made cars. The play will instead be set in the present day, where Wi-Fi, smartphones and electric vehicles are ubiquitous. But the central plot – and its heartwarming “vibe” – remain unchanged.
Smith believes that in some ways, the story’s premise is more relevant than ever. “Look at something like Robodebt, where the everyman has been shafted by the powers that be,” he said.
Whelan Browne said she and Smith were drawing on their own experiences as parents. “There’s a moment in the show where we look at each other and well up with tears every night,” she said, becoming misty-eyed. “We’re simply talking about how much we love our kids, and that’s how Justin and I both come at it – there’s a real joy in coming into this optimistic family where they believe everything is going to work out. They’re unbreakable.”
Both actors have also drawn inspiration from their parents.
“My dad would prompt everyone around the dinner table to say thank you to my mum, Jude,” Smith said. “He’d say, ‘Thank you from the bottom of my heart – and thank you from Jude’s bottom, too’, which is a little bit Darryl.”
“My mum, like Sal, has always got her hair done and her make-up on,” Whelan Brown added. “After she gave birth, there’s a photo of her with a full face of make-up, so I’m probably channelling a bit of my mum.”
Co-creator and co-producer Jane Kennedy (who wrote the film with her Working Dog colleagues Tom Gleisner, Santo Cilauro and Rob Sitch, all of whom wrote the stage adaptation while serving as co-producers) said the team never imagined “how deeply these characters would become part of Australian life – people quote the film to us all the time.”
Gleisner added: “People [also] misquote the film – for every, ‘How’s the serenity’, we get, ‘That’s not a knife’.”
Whelan Browne said she believes The Castle On Stage will attract many first-time theatre-goers: “I’ve heard AFL commentators telling people to buy tickets – I watch the footy every week, and I’ve never heard them talk about theatre. No one will walk away from this show regretting buying a ticket. It brings so much love and heart and warmth, and we’re at a time in the world where that’s what we all need.”
The Castle On Stage premieres at Her Majesty’s Theatre on March 27. Tickets: www.thecastleonstage.com.au
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