Australia's only saint had a dream, but certainly not a dream run to heaven.

By Melvyn Morrow and Justin Fleming

Full Length Play, Drama, 19th Century/21st Century

CASTING: 11M, 6F

All Mary MacKillop wanted was to live the dream. But to others -- the staunch male hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church -- she was a nightmare. What MacKillop didn't count on was the degree of obstruction that would stand in her way.

And she did not expect to be humiliated and excommunicated, making it necessary for her to brazen out the storm to found an order for women who would educate the young in wild and remote places in Australia.

She was Australia's Martin Luther. The antipodean Thomas More. Our Joan of Arc. A woman for all seasons. But this play takes a powerful narrative in an unexpected direction.

One hundred and forty years after Mary MacKillop, in 2008, another young Australian woman, Anna, goes to Rome with a passionate mission to see an audience with Pope Benedict XVI to push for the final steps of Mary MacKillop's case to be Australia's first Saint.

But Anna has a few boundaries to cross.

This play combines humour and drama in dealing with life and death battles and survival in Australia -- then and now.