PLAY READING | I Can't Believe It's Not Parramatta!?

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Parramatta!? is a bold, ensemble-driven theatrical mosaic about one of Australia’s most significant and rapidly changing cities.

As cranes rise, buildings disappear, memories are unearthed and new communities reshape Parramatta, a chorus of voices competes to define what the city has been, what it is and what it might become.

Drafted in situ across Parramatta over 20 days in February and March 2026, the play brings together history, myth, memory, imagination and absurdity. Twenty-seven characters spanning more than two centuries collide in a fast-moving work that shifts between realism, satire, documentary and portraiture.

Written by Linda Atkins, Saurabh Bhattacharya, Micharne Cloughley, Laneikka Denne, Chris Fleming and Marcus Khoudair, the work asks us to look at Parramatta — in all its brutality, beauty and absurdity — to better understand who we are and where we are going.

NB This event, it will be presented on the verandah of Hambledon Cottage, with the audience invited to bring picnic rugs and lawn chairs to experience the reading while sitting underneath one of the oldest cork trees in Australia.

Saturday 19 September

4pm- 6pm

Hambledon Cottage Verandah

FREE
Presented as a free play reading as part of Parramatta’s Lit! 2026 supported by City of Parramatta, Create NSW and Creative Australia.