The Rabbits
2015 album by Kate Miller-Heidke
The Rabbits is a music theatre work with music by Kate Miller-Heidke and libretto by Lally Katz (with additional music by Iain Grandage), based on the book by John Marsden illustrated by Shaun Tan. As per the original book, it is an allegory for the colonisation of Australia, depicting an invasion of rabbits (in lieu of the English settlers) described as alien, harsh and greedy, as they destroy the land and lives of the native marsupials (in lieu of the original Indigenous population).
Productions
In 2014, Lyndon Terracini announced that Opera Australia had co-commissioned Miller-Heidke to write an opera based on John Marsden's children's book The Rabbits, to be performed in 2015.
The Rabbits was first performed at the Perth International Arts Festival in February 2015, produced by Opera Australia and Barking Gecko Theatre Company, to critical acclaim. It later played seasons at the Melbourne Festival in October 2015, the Sydney Festival in January 2016 and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in March 2016.
The Rabbits received four 2015 Helpmann Awards, for Best New Australian Work, Best Original Score, Best Presentation for Children and Best Costume Design. Katz received the 2016 AWGIE Award for Music Theatre for The Rabbits' libretto.
Soundtrack
The cast recording was recorded live during The Rabbits' Sydney season, and released in April 2016. It was nominated for Best Original Soundtrack/Cast/Show Album at the 2016 ARIA Awards.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Rabbits” as 2015 album by Kate Miller-Heidke. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 2015 album by Kate Miller-Heidke. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q28224334. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Rabbits” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.