Ion Nibiru (Eye-on Ni-beer-roo) is a production company dedicated to breaking the mould and offering fresh perspectives in creative enterprise. Co-founded by Rod Byrnes and Raymond James, the idea for forming the company came out of a desire to tell our own stories, bring to life existing stories we’re passionate about, and create ongoing work for Artists in their fields of expertise – and in roles they would not otherwise have an opportunity to explore.
With this in mind, late 2009 saw the company begin rehearsals for its’ acclaimed inaugural production “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me”, written by Brian Keenan and directed by Nikola Amanovic. At this time, the company also took on its’ first Artistic associate, Zac Jardine, and began to develop various working relationships to start casting the net as wide as possible for key creatives to do something new, from scratch, working across multiple mediums, in unfamiliar roles. These people would ultimately share the same goal: to create the absolute best work possible with complete attention to all the core values of story telling.
“It's not a different direction; rather, an alternate perspective.“
Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me represented the beginning of a journey. “The Birthday Boys” represents the next stage. Written by Aaron Kozak, an American playwright, this wonderful piece of theatre has never been done before in Australia- in fact this is the inaugural production outside of North America. We have chosen this story because of its contemporary relevance to the idea of what is happening to the human spirit? It struck a chord with us as being a poignant look at the state of the world we live in. Often there are so many things that confuse us, make us worried, even horrify us- this play encapsulates the apathy and desensitisation that exists in the world around us while we all simply try to make do and live.
The play happens to share many similar themes to ‘Someone who’ll watch over me’, in fact, when first approached about the play and hearing it was about 3 guys locked in a cell, one could have been convinced without reading it that it was in fact nearly the exact same play. Fortunately, while the themes have a lot in common, the play itself- it’s structure, use of language, and the characters are very different. It screamed of being a great piece for actors, and a grand way to collaborate on something that an audience has never seen before. It is a new work, something which we are proud to present- and honoured that other artists would get on board and take up the challenge of doing this for the first time. It will be the 2nd play in a trilogy of plays that explore the human spirit in the modern age. The 3rd play, Impedimenta, is an original piece written by Ray James. It has undergone a lengthy development process and two rehearsed public readings. The company aims to produce the play in 2018.