Jacqui Purvis knows how to leave an impression. When her character Felicity Newman was killed off Home and Away in August 2024 by a sudden brain aneurysm, the shock rippled through Summer Bay and beyond. Felicity was fierce, flawed, and deeply human — a character whose passionate love story with Tane Parata had anchored some of the soap’s most emotional arcs in recent years. Her death devastated viewers, marking the end of an era and raising a question fans weren’t ready to ask: what would Jacqui Purvis do next?

Now, the answer has arrived — and it is anything but safe.

In a move that has surprised fans and industry insiders alike, Purvis has stepped away from the predictable post-soap trajectory and returned to Australia to take on her first professional theatre role. The project is gritty, intimate, and emotionally volatile, reflecting an actress determined not to coast on fame, but to challenge herself in the most confronting way possible.

After taking time to travel in the United States and build her screen career — including landing a role in the feature film Fear Is the Rider — Purvis made a decision that defied expectations. Rather than continuing down a commercially comfortable path, she founded her own production company, Knickknack Productions, with a mission to flip the script on female narratives and champion complex, unapologetic women on stage and screen.

Her first major theatrical undertaking under that banner is Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, the iconic two-hander written by John Patrick Shanley. The play will run at the Old Fitz Theatre from January 13 to February 1, 2026, and it marks a major turning point in Purvis’s career.

“It’s kind of dangerous. It’s emotional. It’s violent,” Purvis says candidly. “But it’s also deeply romantic. At its core, it’s about love — real love — and connection. And right now, I think we’re starving for that.”

The play follows two damaged souls who meet late one night in a Bronx bar. What unfolds is raw, confronting, and unfiltered — a psychological stripping-back of pain, rage, vulnerability, and longing. Purvis plays Roberta, a woman who refuses to soften herself to be palatable. It’s a role she felt instinctively drawn to.

“Roberta doesn’t fit into boxes,” Purvis explains. “Everything is out on the table — the grit, the mess, the dirt. That’s what I love about strong female characters. The messiness is part of who we are, and I don’t want to shy away from that.”

That ethos has shaped Purvis’s creative identity from the beginning. Growing up, she gravitated toward sports and action films, often joking that she wanted to be “Matt Damon” because she rarely saw women who reflected her own energy and complexity on screen.

“I wanted to see strong, gritty female characters who felt real to my life,” she says. “That’s still my driving force. Everything I do comes back to that.”

The project is deeply personal in another way as well. The second lead is played by Purvis’s real-life partner, JK Kazzi — a casting choice rooted not in publicity, but necessity. According to the production team, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea demands absolute emotional trust between its two performers.

“This play asks actors to go to very dark, very vulnerable places,” a source close to the production reveals. “Jacqui needed someone who could meet her there without fear. JK was the natural choice.”

The commitment didn’t stop there. In preparation, Purvis and Kazzi traveled to New York, immersing themselves in the Bronx — the setting of the play — to understand its cultural texture. While there, they met with Shanley himself, a moment Purvis describes as surreal.

“He’s shaped modern theatre. He’s worked with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Viola Davis,” she recalls. “He sat with us, answered our questions, shared why he wrote the play and how personal these characters were to him. It changed everything.”

Transitioning from television to theatre has been no small feat. On Home and Away, Purvis thrived in a large ensemble, surrounded by intersecting storylines. Theatre, by contrast, offers nowhere to hide.

“It’s just JK and me on stage for the entire hour and fifteen minutes,” she explains. “We never leave the stage. There’s no escape. That’s terrifying — and exactly why I wanted to do it.”

The announcement of the project sparked an immediate reaction from the Home and Away fan community. While many admitted they were still grieving Felicity’s death, the dominant response was admiration.

“She never chooses the safe path,” one fan wrote.
“From Felicity to Roberta, Jacqui has a gift for breaking our hearts.”
“Not every soap actor dares to do this — it’s brave, and I respect her for it.”

Industry professionals, however, are divided. Some see the move as a bold reinvention; others as a risky gamble.

“This is not an easy script,” a Melbourne theatre director warned. “Audiences won’t forgive shallow performances in a two-hander.”

Yet many in the arts community strongly disagree. “The stage is where true actors are made,” a Sydney acting coach said. “If Jacqui pulls this off, she’ll elevate herself to a whole new level.”

What makes the project even more daunting is that Purvis isn’t just starring in the play — she’s producing it and acting as creative lead. Financially and artistically, the risk rests squarely on her shoulders.

“She knew failure was possible,” a producer reveals. “But she said she’d rather fail doing something meaningful than succeed playing it safe.”

That courage, it seems, is what defines Jacqui Purvis in this next chapter. She is not chasing quick fame or easy applause. She is chasing truth, discomfort, and growth — even if it hurts.

Home and Away may have lost Felicity Newman, but Australian theatre may have gained something just as powerful: an artist willing to bet everything on authenticity.

And for Jacqui Purvis, that risk may prove to be the most defining role of all.