Description

The sensational hit show Sea Wolves Howl is coming to Phillip Island after their sell-out debut season in February 2024.

When two women met on a beach in September 2020 during Melbourne's lockdown, they had no idea they were starting a movement. By December, sixty women had joined them. They called themselves the Mt Martha Sea Wolves.

Sea Wolves Howl brings their extraordinary stories to life through vivid theatre and original
songs. Five characters guide us through their daily ritual: waking before dawn, gathering on
the shore, stripping down to their togs, joining hands so no-one can chicken out, howling
like wolves, and plunging into the icy water together.

Each step of this journey offers particular physical challenges and evokes powerful stories.
We meet women facing grief, illness, family violence, and social isolation. We witness their
transformation as they discover that cold-water therapy becomes whole-life therapy—
unleashing a wildness and playfulness that says yes to the universe with a mighty howl.

When they brave the wild sea, the differences that divide them on land are stripped away
as they expose their bodies and souls to the water, to nature, and sometimes to each
other. In this sacred space, they are seen, supported, celebrated and loved for their true
selves.

Created through extensive interviews and conversations with the real Sea Wolves
community, this work transforms their actual words into dialogue, monologue, song,
image and movement. Featuring older female and gender-fluid performers boldly strutting
their stuff in their togs, Sea Wolves Howl celebrates community resilience, the
transformative power of nature, and the beauty of finding your wet and wild together.

Warnings: References to death, physical and mental illness, family violence, social isolation. Limited swearing in English and Italian.

This extraordinary local production, commissioned for Flinders Fringe Festival, is based on the stories of a group of women and non-binary people who bonded over cold-water swimming during COVID. Together, they discovered the power of the pack as they literally howled their troubles, and their triumphs, to the sky.


'Sea Wolves Howl represents something truly special - a work born from genuine community connection that speaks to universal themes of resilience, transformation, and the healing power of collective experience. The demographic representation in this show - older women discovering new chapters of their lives - is both underserved in contemporary theatre and deeply needed.'
— Heidi Irvine, Head of Programming, Frankston Arts Centre