More than 100 people watched Sugarland - inspired by the youth of Katherine - when it hit the Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts and Culture Centre stage on August 15 and director Fraser Corfield said lifting the curtain on the performance in town before taking it to audiences in Darwin and Sydney had paid dividends.

“We needed to see whether or not the people of Katherine would feel like it was an authentic show dealing with issues they’ve got here in the town, or a bunch of people coming in from the city, stealing some place names,” he explained.

“It’s really important to us that people from Katherine feels it’s an accurate representation of people who are in communities like Katherine.”

Sugarland is written by playwrights Rachael Coopes and Wayne Blair and is the result of a series of residencies held in Katherine in 2011.

Members of the cast had never been to Katherine until last week and Corfield said the experience, which included visits to Beswick and Binjari, had allowed the performance to evolve.

“It really changed them,” Corfield said.

“They really grew as a cast, I think.”