Melbourne playwright

Matt Williamson.

Plays about power, family and the systems shaping ordinary lives.

Ironbark forest in central Victoria

Selected plays

Selected plays.

01

Yield

By 2047, a farm in Tasmania may be one of the last safe places left. Then an estranged brother arrives with debt, a gun and a claim to the land. As strangers gather beyond the gate, one family must decide what it will defend—and what it is willing to become.

A climate thriller about borders, inheritance and the old systems that return when survival is at stake.

A torn greenhouse roof seen through damaged netting
02

Baby Bird

As Anders loses his memory, his dead wife returns as an AI—and unsettles everything the family believes about the past.

Baby Bird asks who controls memory when the dead can be rebuilt.

A lone horse crossing a misty field at first light
03

Hard Yards

When Martin leaves a corporate career to teach at an outer-suburban public school, he believes effort and care will be enough. As he tries to reach students the system has already labelled, he discovers how little a school can repair on its own.

Hard Yards asks who pays when public education is left to hold everything else together.

An empty corridor stacked with chairs at a Queensland state school
Heritage branch staff / State of Queensland · CC BY 4.0 · cropped
04

Tomorrow Will Be Perfect

In 2034, AI takes over the work Liam has built his life around: teaching. While his wife manages the mental-health fallout of mass unemployment, Liam fights to save his profession—and begins to lose his family.

Tomorrow Will Be Perfect asks what happens when work disappears before we have learned how to live without it.

A solitary fisherman on the Western Australian coast at sunrise

Other writing

Screenplays & books.

Screenplays

Fox, Into Dust, Clear River and Space Love Story have received funding and development.

Fox

Rommel becomes a military legend, then finds himself trapped between Hitler, Germany and his conscience.

The North Way

A Viking matriarch faces exile, war and dynastic violence to lead her family toward Iceland.

Into Dust

A detention worker befriends a detainee, exposing firsthand the human cost of Australia’s detention system.

Epsilon Indi

A privileged heir joins an uprising aboard a generation ship racing toward a new world.

Clear River

In a dying country town, three friends collide with the violent policeman who rules it.

Space Love Story

A television stunt sends a celebrity into orbit, where manufactured romance collides with something real.

The Undertow

A fishing town confronts history no one wants to remember when a lost son returns.

Children’s books

Published by Macmillan Education.

  • Trevor—Disco King
  • Sally’s Little Tree House
  • Mac and the Tunnel of Death
Close detail of quartz and ironstone

The work

I write about ordinary people caught in systems they did not design: schools, families, workplaces, markets and technologies. The drama begins when those systems force a choice.

In the room

Cast and creative team standing together in a theatre rehearsal space
Actors and creatives working around a table during a play reading

About

Matt Williamson is a Melbourne playwright, screenwriter and teacher. He writes about power, work, family and the near future.

His working life has included jobs as an animal management officer and truck driver, work in market and social research, and teaching and leadership in public secondary schools.

He teaches English and history. That work has given him a deep understanding of the patterns human societies repeat—and why recognising them matters more than ever as technological, political and environmental change accelerates.

He has also written funded screenplays and children’s books.

Portrait of Matt Williamson

Contact

For scripts, readings, development and production enquiries.

Previously represented by the William Morris Agency in Los Angeles. Currently represented by Cameron’s Management.