Blaque Showgirls
Plumage! Puns! Political incorrectness gone mad! Griffin Theatre Company is proud to present: Blaque Showgirls! A lonely kid in rural Australia, fair-skinned Sarah Jane Jones is deathly sure of two things: 1. She's the best dancer in the whole town of Chithole, and 2. She's a proud Aboriginal woman. There's very little proof of either of these things. So, when a long-lost photograph offers hope of her Indigenous ancestry, Sarah Jane high-tails it to the glitziest casino in Brisvegas. Her mission? To land a role in the First Nations burlesque spectacular: 'Blaque Showgirls'... by any means necessary. Blaque Showgirls is Nakkiah Lui's sparkly, smart-arsed spoof of the so-bad-it's-good cinematic masterpiece Showgirls. The luminous Stephanie Somerville (Chalkface) fan kicks her way to the front of the chorus line, going head-to-head with all-dancing, all-diamanted drag icon Foxxy Empire! Co-directors Shari Sebbens (Superheroes, City of Gold) and Ursula Yovich (Diving for Pearls, Barbara and the Camp Dogs) jam-pack a long-awaited, pint-sized rhinestoned arena spectacular into the SBW Stables Theatre in 2023. Nakkiah Lui pivots improbably smoothly from outrageous hilarity to heartrending pain and injustice in a kind of one-two move that hits you in the gut.' Limelight Magazine (for Nakkiah Lui and Blackie Blackie Brown)
Carmilla
'You are afraid to die? Yes, everyone is! But to die as lovers may die to die together, so that they may live together?'Carmilla is a ghost story for theatre, enmeshing spoken word and through composed music for live chamber orchestra. This adaptation of Sheridan Le Fanu's controversial 1872 gothic novella explores violence, transgressive sexuality and the fragile boundary between the living and the dead.
All Stops Out
Studying comes naturally to Sam, but Danny finds it more difficult. Linda thinks Jenny is wasting her time while Cathy regrets not working harder. And all the parents are anxious... In All Stops Out, Michael Gow reveals different attitudes towards the dreaded end-of-year exams.
desert, 6
'So there's this family having dinner in a shitty house. And one of them is Xan.' A small town in the middle of nowhere. A family is talking about everything and anything except what's really going on. Through fantasy and hyper-realism, desert, 6:29pm ponders if it's possible to ever truly know someone you love.Morgan Rose is one of the most exciting emerging playwrights in Australia, bringing her unique humour and attention to detail to this heartbreaking, finely wrought work.
A Ghost in My Suitcase
Adapted by Vanessa Bates from Gabrielle Wang's award-winning novel, A Ghost in My Suitcase is an action-packed adventure story that crosses cultural and spiritual worlds. Twelve-year-old Celeste - 'half French, half Chinese and all Australian' - travels to China to scatter her mother's ashes. There she meets her grandmother, Por Por, a quirky and wise woman with an unusual skill. Por Por is a ghost-hunter and her services are much in demand. When Celeste learns she may have inherited her grandmother's talent, she must decide whether to acknowledge her gifts and use them to save her family and friends, and if she has the strength needed for the job. Filled with fantastical characters from this world and the next, A Ghost in My Suitcase is a beautifully told tale of mystery, grief, difference and acceptance. WINNER: 2019 AWGIE Award for Theatre for Young Audiences. 'This short play about twelve-year-old Celeste and her Asian family will delight many students in Years 6 and 7. There are not many plays for students in the middle years and even fewer that reflect Australian connections with Asian cultures.' (English in Australia, Volume 55, November 2, 2020) 'A Ghost in My Suitcase is superb family theatre - a stylish, big-hearted and vibrant adaptation of a much-loved children's book.' The Age 'This is a sophisticated and poetic rendition adapted by Vanessa Bates, ostensibly for children, but calibrated also for an adult sensibility.' ArtsHub
Trailer
All Jeda's friends have moved to the city, but he still lives with his two mothers in a small town between the beach and the bush, on a train line with a city at either end. Waiting. He's not sure what he's waiting for, but in the meantime he works at the council investigating sinkholes in people's backyards. Since finishing high school, the frustrations of coastal life are looming large. And something is being hidden from him about the illness facing one of his mothers. This honest coming-of-age story finds friendship and humour in unexpected places. Introducing a cast of complex characters working through the everyday, Trailer is a darkly comic play set along the train tracks of New South Wales. Nominated for the 2017 AWGIE Award for Community and Youth Theatre.
Hell's Canyon
Caitlin and Oscar used to be mates, but not anymore. These days Caitlin texts boys to meet her in public parks while Oscar eats his lunch in the teachers' staffroom. Today is different though. The unlikely pair share a haunting memory, so they make a pact to run. To completely disappear. Go full on missing. Winner of the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award, shortlisted for the Patrick White Playwrights Award, and developed with Playwriting Australia at the National Script Workshop and the National Play Festival, Hell's Canyon is story of friendship, grief, and teenage rebellion, written by one of Australia's most exciting new playwrights, Emily Sheehan.
The Sugar House
Narelle is Sydney born and bred but lately she's lost her sense of belonging. Something keeps bringing her back to Pyrmont. This peninsula was her family's bedrock, and the home of her extraordinary grandmother June, who held everything together through the decades: a son's brush with the law, a daughter's battles with demons, a husband's decline. Life revolved around the sugar refinery. For a time this was the sweetest neighbourhood in the country. But the family bedrock, like the sugar, has dissolved away. Narelle can't fix the past, but maybe she can fix the future. A story of Sydney - work and corruption, family and massive social change. A story of how Australia went from working class to middle class. 'Valentine, an essential Australian dramatist, writes the marginalised and oft-persecuted fringes of Australia into our dramatic canon with long-denied dignity and grace. The Sugar House is a gift of theatre; an exploration of who we were, who we are and who we wish we could be.' - TIMEOUT
Intersection
There's this feeling, in my gut. Like a crackle. Makes me feel a bit sick. Feels like it's telling me something's gonna happen soon. Something's coming ' that's what I think. From Revolution is Coming, Maybe by Sian Murphy. As the world ends in a fire tornado, two young lovers find that breaking up is never easy. In a holding cell, a young woman arrested for graffiti wonders about Cardi B and climate change. The formal on Saturday night is going to be a magical evening ' or perhaps more like the revenge scene from a B'grade horror movie. And two new friends need to track down a pet velociraptor ' right now ' before things get really bad. Each year, ATYP brings together 20 playwrights from around Australia, empowering them to create plays that connect with young performers and audiences. The Intersection Festival is the creative reimagining of our popular Voices Project and Intersection plays, giving young people the opportunity to perform brand'new short plays written by some of the country's best new writers.
Zeal Theatre Volume 2
Zeal Theatre is an internationally renowned touring theatre company dedicated to creating plays for schools, theatres and festivals. The company has created over 45 original plays, which have been staged in over 30 countries worldwide.Following on the success of Zeal's 2011 collection featuring The Stones, Burnt and Taboo, this collection features two new plays: King Hit and Lucky Country.King Hit opens at Tula's birthday party. Heaps of people arrive, the music is pumping and everyone is having a great time. When Tula's dad leaves, things change. Two boys start to argue and what begins as a bit of fun quickly escalates into an alcohol-fuelled fight, reaching a shocking climax. Blending elements of naturalism, docu-drama and expressionism, King Hit questions the dynamic of violence as it touches the lives of young people. In Lucky Country, a new student arrives at Cook Vale High. He's from Syria, he is a refugee, and he's spent time on Nauru. Two boys in his class concoct a 'special welcome', triggering events that engulf the whole community. Lucky Country looks at contemporary racism, global politics and the role of the media.
Good with Maps and Teacup in a Storm
GOOD WITH MAPS: When the world map was full of gaps, the Amazon topped the list of places unknown to western explorers. In the twenty-first century are there any 'unknowns' left? On a trip to the Amazon, the writer ponders this and other questions as she struggles to deal with her father's journey through Parkinson's disease towards what is perhaps our last great unknown-death. Good with Maps is sad and confronting, but it's also funny and thoughtful, celebrating the power of literature to transport us to places both real and imagined.'This is a complex, deeply rewarding piece of theatre, one that balances cerebral exuberance with shattering emotional power.' - David Kettle, The List (Edinburgh Festival)TEACUP IN A STORM: The jungle of bureaucracy, the drudgery of cleaning up yet another shattered plate, the isolation of responsibility. Caring for someone with a disability or enduring health need is no fairytale. But in this mix of documentary and fictional narrative, No禱lle Janaczewska weaves a story of heroines and dragons - and battles fought both inside and out. Teacup in a Storm is a window into the largely unseen world of carers and the power of love and determination.Winner of the 2017 AWGIE Award for Community and Youth Theatre.
Mark Colvin's Kidney
A premiere Australian play based on actual events, showing just how startling real-life can be.Mary-Ellen Field is a successful Australian business consultant in London - until she's accused of betraying the secrets of her supermodel client to the press. Her life comes crashing down: her job, her health and her standing in society collapse. When it emerges that her client's phone had been hacked by reporters, Mary Ellen sets out to defiantly restore her reputation.But along the way, her ideas of redemption change - she's been interviewed by a journalist on the other side of the world, and his story puts everything into a new perspective.
Winyanboga Yurringa
Six Indigenous women gather on country for what seems like a fun camping trip by the river, a chance to get away from the daily grind, a time to natter and laugh. A photographer, a museum curator, a community leader, a young and troubled niece, a besieged mother and a park ranger - these strikingly different contemporary Aboriginal women joke and bicker, rile each other one minute and comfort each other the next. And when the peace of the campsite is upended, they band together to make it right. Winyanboga Yurringa weaves through questions about place and trauma, blackness and community, responsibility and ownership. Inspired by the iconic TV show Women of the Sun, Andrea James's moving and gently provocative play celebrates the power of kinship and acceptance, and what it really means to be connected to country. Winyanboga Yurringa is a work of great feeling, fraught with tension, leavened with laughter and racked with gut-felt anger. - Keith Gallasch, RealTime
Cold Light
Here comes Edith Campbell Berry, fresh from International acclaim at the League of Nations, handsome British diplomatic husband in tow. Look out 1950s Canberra, she's on her way to the top. Or is she? The League was after all a failure, and hubby dear is a secret cross dresser and her long lost brother is a Communist agitator watched by a fledgling ASIO. Maybe those dreams of renewed diplomatic honour might take longer than she thinks to materialise. A lot longer. And so to be 'acceptable' she consults the Book of Crossroads, bungles her inner life, remarries badly, and compromises her career options. An epic story of national significance, Cold Light surveys the transformation of Australia from the post-WWII Menzies era to the mid-1970s Whitlam government and asks timely questions about Australia's relationship to women of vision and people of difference.
Sharp Darts
Seven playwrights. Fifteen plays. Short plays, but whole worlds contained in them. Huge windows into the minds and times of seven extraordinary writers for the theatre. These award-winning playwrights' Donna Abela, Vanessa Bates, Hilary Bell, Noalle Janaczewska, Verity Laughton, Ned Manning and Catherine Zimdahl collectively known as 7-ON, have collaborated over multiple projects since they banded together in 2005. Gathered here for the first time, Sharp Darts is a selection of some of 7-ON's best short works, chamber pieces for the stage and for audio. They take us from a lonely caravan on the edge of the ocean, to the footy oval of our teenage tragedies, a soulless suburban shopping mall, a futuristic island with its own language, a boat on a river in the deep deep dark, across a nostalgic backyard fence, inside the implosion of a dynasty, and beyond. These sharp, pointed portraits of Australia by some of our country's best playwrights are by turns dark, funny, surprising, moving and political, but above all inspiring in their vision and creativity.
Masquerade
In a wondrous world of riddles and hidden treasure, bumbling Jack Hare is on a race against time to deliver a message of love from the Moon to the Sun. Far, far away in a world just like ours, a mother cheers her son Joe with the tale of Jack Hare's adventure. But when Jack's mission goes topsy-turvy, Joe and his mum must come to the rescue, and the line between the two worlds becomes blurred forever. Bringing to life Kit Williams' iconic picture book, Masquerade stars a talking fish, a tone-deaf barbershop quartet, a gassy pig, a precious jewel and a few mere mortals. It's a magical adventure that is, at its heart, about the love between a parent and a child.
Girl Asleep
Caught in the headlights of her fifteenth birthday, Greta wishes she could be anywhere else. And strangely enough 'anywhere else' is exactly where she finds herself-a peculiar Through-the-Looking-Glass existence that transforms the weird hypocrisy of the adult world into something absurdly beautiful. The bitchy twins who make school a misery, her almost too-romantic imaginary boyfriend, her hyperventilating parents... they all crop up in her tour of her own subconscious. But eventually, even a girl asleep has to wake up.From the wry, warm and wonderfully distinctive voice of Matthew Whittet comes a play about being lost in the jungle of teenagerdom and coming out the other side.
Counting and Cracking
'In Tamil we don't say goodbye. Only, I will go and come back.' S. Shakthidharan's extraordinary multilingual play (English, Tamil and Sinhalese) Counting and Cracking traverses countries and decades to bring us an epic tale of family, love and politics. On the banks of a river in Sydney, Radha and her son Siddhartha release the ashes of Radha's mother so she can be at peace with her ancestors. Into the water go the particles of one life, but unknown to Siddharta, Radha still holds onto the ashes of her beloved grandfather, brought with her when she left Sri Lanka 21 years before. And so begins a story that spirals out across Australia and Sri Lanka, taking in four generations of a family and their connection to a country that continues to give them equal measures of sorrow and joy. It is an exhilarating, moving and necessary tribute to people of all backgrounds who are forced to live in exile and build a new home from the heart up. යක් 'A story of survival and hope, of human connectedness, and our deep desire to understand three things - our history, our identity and what "home" means to us.' - Community response.
The Mermaid
The Mermaid is a reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, created by a team of teenage and adult theatre-makers. Their retelling of the story traces the journey of a fifteen-year-old mermaid, her transformation, obsession, sacrifice, self-destruction, and self-actualization. A tragicomedy with a teenage chorus that has a screaming vision for a hopeful tomorrow. A poetic piece of visual theatre about finding your voice and the power that comes with using it.
The Peasant Prince
This extraordinary play for young people is an adaptation of Li Cunxin's picture book The Peasant Prince - the true story of Mao's Last Dancer. Adapted by Monkey Baa, Australia's leading theatre company for young audiences, The Peasant Prince has toured nationally, performing to tens of thousands of young people and their families throughout rural and regional Australia. The production was awarded Most Outstanding Production for Children (the Glugs), Best Production for Children (Sydney Theatre Awards) and a Drover's Award for Best Touring Production (Australian Performing Arts and Producers Awards). Li, a 10-year-old boy, is plucked from his village in rural China and sent to a ballet academy in the big city. He leaves everything and everyone he loves, including his family. Over years of gruelling training, he transforms from an impoverished peasant to a giant of the international dance scene. What does he find along the way? The Peasant Prince is a remarkable true story of courage, resilience and unwavering hope. 'A poignant gem' Sydney Arts Guide 'Vital, exuberant, aspirational, and inspirational' Australian Stage 'Monkey Baa Theatre Company has created another wonderful work for children' Broadway World
Dogged
On the lands of alpine Victoria, on Gunaikurnai country, a story of familial bonds unfolds. Faced with the looming foreclosure of her family's property, a farmer's daughter is on the hunt in the rugged Australian bush-on territory that by rights isn't hers to travel through. From deep between the eucalypts, another woman-a mother dingo-searches desperately for her lost pups. She howls into the night, run ragged by hunger and grief. Over the course of one long night, the Woman and Dingo forge an alliance to claw closer to the things they ache for... but it's a dangerous deal to make. Tumble down the dingo's den into a work of sheer Australian Gothic, brought to you by the collaborative collision of playwrights Andrea James (Sunshine Super Girl) and AWGIE-winner Catherine Ryan. Dogged is a bloody parable painted with electric movement and a story that stares you straight down the barrel.
The Voices Project 2016
ATYP's annual production of seven-minute monologues for seventeen-year-old actors has changed the landscape for young writers and performers in Australia. Since the program was established in 2011 the Voices Project has supported the professional development of more than 120 young playwrights, resulted in six publications by Currency Press, instigated ten short films, been broadcast on ABC Radio National and performed by schools, youth theatres and independent companies in every Australian state and territory. The films and online resources have received more than 1 million views worldwide. 'The air seems to shift. A stark black crow dives down... Out of sight. The light's changing, we should have left by now.' But all good things must come to an end. This final season explores the theme of departures. Always surprising, tender, shocking and funny, the Voices Project has given a generation of young Australians monologues that speak their language. It's always sad to say goodbye.
Playing Beatie Bow
Abigail is a teenager who doesn't quite fit in. She's new in The Rocks, old in her dress sense, and stuck in the middle of her parents' messy separation. She can't wait to get away from all of it. When a street game played by the neighbourhood kids conjures up a mysterious girl, Abigail follows her down twisting alleyways to find herself stuck somewhere strangely familiar and yet entirely strange: The Rocks ... in 1873. Abigail must first work out where on earth she is, then how she's going to get home ... and if she really wants to. Kate Mulvany's adaptation of Ruth Park's classic Playing Beatie Bow, follows in the footsteps of her much-lauded version of Park's The Harp in the South, with all its colour, music, humour and verve. In a rollicking tale filled with mystery, romance and magic, Playing Beatie Bow explores the gift each of us must discover inside ourselves. The past is closer than you think.
Bad Machine
Since 2015, the Australian government has raised an estimated $2.1bn in debt from Centrelink clients in a manner which the Federal Court has since ruled 'unlawful'. Known as the Robodebt scandal, the scheme affected over 400,000 Australians, including some of the nation's most vulnerable people. Inspired by real cases, Brooke Robinson's bad machine is a fictionalised look at the human cost of an inhuman system, and our vanishing social safety net.
Stories in the Dark
A terrified 12-year-old boy finds himself separated from his family in the unfamiliar streets of a war-torn city. He takes refuge in a bombed-out house and in the total blackness his bravado crumbles into tears. Into his life steps Anna - older, street smart and scornful of his crying. As a way of shutting the boy up, she starts to tell him a story that she vaguely remembers from her own childhood. And so begins a journey into the shifting, shimmering world of ogres, princes, singing bones, foolish lads and wolf-mothers. Stories in the Dark explores the power of storytelling, mingling the magic and earthy wisdom of folk tales with the hard-edged story of violence, conflict and the struggle to survive.
Intersection
It's formal night and Jerry stands on a hill, high heels in hand. A young woman heads to a party dressed as a blueberry. Stuart plays at the arcade to win a slime-green lava lamp instead of concentrating on the problem at hand. What connects them is not time, it's place. Intricately drawn by Australia's leading young writers, Intersection is a collection of short stories playing out across the same town, creating a glorious map of the connections we form and the experiences we have when we're seventeen. Each year ATYP (Australian Theatre for Young People) brings together 20 young writers from across the country, and challenges them to create stories that speak to the experience of being a young person in Australia, here and now. Expanding on the popular Voices Project, Intersection features heartbreaking, funny and powerful interactions between characters coupled with complex and beautiful monologues to create a compelling snapshot of life at seventeen.
Tales of a City by the Sea
'If only our bodies were bulletproof If only our boats were made of steel If only our dreams were real.' Gaza, 2008. A Palestinian journalist writes poetry on the beach. A doctor must decide to stay or leave. Then come the missiles and the phosphorus showers. This is a furious and tender exploration of the fragility of freedom. The national collides with the personal as activism and reporting take to the stage. Tales of a City by the Sea uses poetry, tenderness and humour to explore the love between those who have choices, and those who do not. Language fails us when it comes to displacement and grief; yet Samah Sabawi's language cracks grief open and remains present, like the sea.Tales of a City by the Sea was staged twice in 2014: at La Mama Theatre in Melbourne and at the Aida refugee camp in Palestine.
Yanagai! Yanagai!
Munarra is a black woman, thrown from the skies into the Dreaming so that she may heal her land, the mighty river Dhungula and her people. In the present day, the Yorta Yorta people are in court, fighting for a right to their land. Yanagai! Yanagai! is a war cry, the first recorded Yorta Yorta words spoken to the white men who went onto their land uninvited. Since its premiere in Melbourne in 2003, Yanagai! Yanagai! has been performed in France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Philippines. Now in a revised edition Yanagai! Yanagai! is a celebration of Yorta Yorta stories and song. Some of the stories are told so that they may be remembered; others are told in the hope that they never occur again.
Ladies Day
It's Ladies Day at the Broome races and the divinely beautiful Mike is the toast of the track. But amongst the froth and festivity, a brutal act of violence reminds us that life is not just all swishy hemlines, debonair gents and fascinators galore. Alana Valentine is one of Australia's best playwrights. Known for her incredibly successful verbatim works, she takes her interviews and research with individuals and communities, and mixes them with a healthy dose of drama. The result is powerful, thought-provoking theatre in which the voices of her protagonists ring absolutely true. Alana spent months interviewing the gay community of Broome to create a play that asks questions about tolerance, isolation, love, hope and the right to have your story told.
Out of the Ordinary
Theo rages against the age of unearned celebrity. She doesn't want to make a mark on the world or do anything but live a decent and dignified life. If only her family would cooperate! Her father desperately chases fame, her boyfriend embraces notoriety as an internet troll and her mother is concerned with what the church thinks, even though she's only in it for the cake stalls. And then there's the baby, of course. She's a problem. Life has never been further from ordinary... A battle across generations, Out of the Ordinary captures the dilemma of navigating the modern world, where an obsession with what we leave behind threatens to swallow our present.
What We Saw
What We Saw is the moving story of two strangers seeking solace for their loneliness and pain. Their story unfolds not through words but through the language of gestures; each silent movement serves as a testament to their shared understanding.Their journey is a dance of unspoken connection, taking them from the recesses of a club via the haunting sounds of the sea to a place where they expose the vulnerability of their existence and the intensity of their desire.But when reality intrudes and shatters their silent symphony, it culminates in a devastating and tragic climax. What We Saw is an examination of interpersonal relationships and the silent language of empathy.Described as having a "gradual but compelling development" and a "hypnotic quality in its calm, unflinching observation of shame, loneliness and pain," What We Saw is a story that slowly builds up tension and suspense, gripping you from the beginning to the end, and its haunting melody will resonate with you.
Peter Brook and the Mahabharata
First published in 1991, Peter Brook and the Mahabharata is a collection of essays which contextualizes the production of Peter Brook's The Mahabharata.
Hibernation
The icebergs are melting. The animals are dying. The planet is buckling under the weight of our neglect, our greed. We dream of a sustainable future but could we dream ourselves into one?In Hibernation, one simple idea is turned into a global movement: what if we could somehow turn back the clock? What if everyone on earth went to sleep for a year and let nature take back control? This startling premise sets the stage for Finegan Kruckemeyer's bold and brilliant adventure through an imagined future that feels barely a heartbeat away from the present.A globally sanctioned shutdown "in an idea conceived long before the pandemic" sees citizens of every nation fill their lungs with chemically altered air and wait. What happens next is moving, terrifying and totally transformative.This epic and intimate portrayal of the personal impact of environmental crisis is at its core a story of lives lived, loved and squandered, of good acts and bad, and of redemption.We've made our beds. Now we must sleep in them.
Ruben Guthrie
Ruben Guthrie is on fire. He's 29, he's the Creative Director of a cutting-edge advertising agency, he's engaged to a Czech supermodel and Sydney is his oyster. He pours himself a drink to celebrate, a drink to work, a drink to sleep and one spectacular night he drinks so much he thinks he can fly. Ruben Guthrie is Brendan Cowell's brutally honest comedy about spiralling high, crashing hard and being taken to AA by your mum.
Maggie Stone
'Back in Kenya-in the camps-they say we can stay there for free. But everybody wants something. The journalists want our stories; the NGOs want us to sing in their choirs; the SPLA wants our sons as soldiers. The spirits of our ancestors want us to honour them...' Maggie Stone is a battle axe. She's rude, prickly and doesn't owe the world a thing. This makes her an ideal loans officer. But when a family of strangers finally awakens her compassion, Maggie will learn firsthand the politics of charity. For even favours require gratitude, investment requires returns, and an outstanding debt awaits satisfaction. And soon the life Maggie borrowed will need to be paid for.Maggie Stone is about loneliness and debt, the risk that comes from asking others for help and the cost of living a life owing nobody. Nominated for the Western Australian Premier's Script Award, this play paints an unflinchingly honest yet ultimately empathetic portrait of modern Australia.
Euphoria
A country town. A festival. A local tragedy. This tale of good days, bad days and everything in between catapults us right into the heart of this little town where everyone knows everyone, and where Ethan is hit by his past as Meg struggles with the present. As the festival unfolds, Meg and Ethan's worlds collide and the community comes together for an event they'll never forget.Euphoria is a rich and heart-warming story from award-winning South Australian playwright Emily Steel, inspired by conversations with regional communities. It brings an entire town to life with authenticity and unmistakeable wit. 'Funny, heart-warming, emotive, and thought provoking, Euphoria is an outstanding piece of theatre' - Limelight
Pinball
Pinball is a prescient, detailed and funny work that explores queer and lesbian sexual politics, the structures of the legal system, homophobia and childhood trauma. This remarkable play is about a young lesbian woman, Theenie, forced into a custody battle for her son, when she and her ex-husband Sylvester can't convince the other members of their families to live and let live. The child, poignantly invisible and voiceless in the play, is bounced back and forth through the personal politics and prejudices of more and more people as they try to get onto the bandwagon, using Theenie and her male child Alabaster, as a political football. 'Alison Lyssa's words are powerful and devastating [...] her depiction of misogyny and homophobia in Western and Christian societal structures remains accurate, scathing and raw.' - SUZY GOES SEE
Frankenstein
A startling, unsettling and hugely theatrical adaptation of Mary Shelley's timeless classic, produced by award-winning playwright Christine Davey, Skin of our Teeth Productions and La Mama Theatre. A funny, thoughtful, horrific and remarkable story of love, power, friendship, betrayal and every emotion in between. Frankenstein is a larger-than-life (and death) production celebrating and unleashing the monster in all of us. A visceral piece of theatre that grabs at your heart and soul and never lets go. The future is female and here she comes, ready or not.
Anthem
It was the 7.57 on the Upfield line. The 8.02 on the Mernda line. The 6.22 on the Craigieburn face to face, groin to bum, armpit to armpit. On the morning commute. A single mother struggles with her hyperactive child, a young man exerts control over his girlfriend, a cleaner is begged for help by her former boss, a convenience store worker returns for vengeance, three siblings thrash out racial and ideological battle lines, an elderly couple remember their own war of resistance. All the while busker Charity demands the passengers pay up, pay up.As the stories intersect, the characters collide with each other and tear apart, or pull towards one another in yearning and loneliness. A simmering conflict keeps us on our toes, and the train moves us inexorably forwards.Two decades after their seminal work, Who's Afraid of the Working Class?, Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves, Christos Tsiolkas and Irine Vela reunite for a new take on class and the politics of marginalisation. Anthem registers the pulse of the nation in a country unable to reconcile its past and uncertain of its future. With no easy answers, it asks the urgent question of who we are now: does Australia really sing with one voice?'An ambitious, energetic and remarkable play' - The Guardian'Gripping and intoxicating' - Time Out'Anthem is powerful and important theatre that should inspire reflection on how Australia became so polarised.' - The Age
Norm and Ahmed
'Buzo has something real and immediate to say about Australian attitudes. He makes the audience uneasy about the unperceptiveness of an 'average' Aussie confronted by a well-mannered, educated Pakistani student. Norm parades many of the proper, accepted attitudes which [...] are shot through the fabric of the Australian character.' - Griffen Foley, Daily Telegraph, 10 April 1968 Written and performed in 1968, Norm and Ahmed was Alex Buzo's first performed play. It gained immediate notice, both for Norm's spectacular language and for the character of Ahmed, one of the first South Asian characters to feature in contemporary Australian theatre. Still alarmingly relevant in the 21st century, Norm and Ahmed has earned its place as a classic of Australian theatre due to its timeless themes and the heightened language, performance style and concern with the behaviour of Australians, its origins and causes that characterised the New Wave.
War Crimes
War Crimes is a gripping story of six teenage girls who are fighting to earn respect and leave their mark by whatever means possible. Inspired by a spate of attacks on war memorials, War Crimes references landmark historical events such as the Cronulla riots and the ANZAC story to interrogate race and gender relations in contemporary Australia. The play draws correlations between the local and the global, between violence against women and a culture of masculinity and mateship. How does powerlessness breed a hatred of 'the other' and what role do governments and the media play in perpetuating xenophobia and misogyny in our community? War Crimes continues Betzien's trademark technique of using real events as pretexts for the creation of relevant and provocative contemporary Australian drama.
Neighbourhood Watch
And God said: 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour'. He obviously hadn't reckoned on Ana. A battle hardened, Hungarian-Australian World War survivor, Ana's bark is as ferocious as her German shepherd's. Catherine is her neighbour: twenty-something, curious and hopeful that a better world is on its way ... but in the meantime watching episodes of The West Wing with her housemate. From each other Ana and Catherine gain a new understanding of friendship, and forge an alliance that carries them to war-torn Hungary and back again. From the writer of the award-winning plays The Black Swan of Trespass and Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd, this is a glorious comedy about hope, death and pets. Lally Katz's giant spirit of curiosity turns optimism into an art form in this play where, in the midst of the ordinary, extraordinary things happen.
The Bleeding Tree
'Girls, I think your father's dead. I knocked his knees out. I conked his head. I shot that house clown in the neck.' In a dirt-dry town in rural Australia, a shot shatters the still night. A mother and her daughters have just welcomed home the man of the house-with a crack in the shins and a bullet in the neck. The only issue now is disposing of the body. Triggered into thrilling motion by an act of revenge, The Bleeding Tree is rude, rhythmical and irreverently funny. Imagine a murder ballad blown up for the stage, set against a deceptively deadly Aussie backdrop, with three fierce females fighting back.
Where the Streets Had a Name
Hayaat and her family spend their days dodging curfews, trying to buy a week's groceries before the sirens blare, remembering their home among the olive groves before it was taken from them. But when the curfew breaks and her beloved grandmother Sitti is taken to hospital, Hayaat sets out on a mission to retrieve a jarful of soil from the family's old farm so she can grant Sitti's last wish of touching the soil of her homeland once more. All Hayaat and her friend Samy have to do is cross the hated wall that divides the West Bank and traverse the most dangerous patch of land on earth. Eva Di Cesare has adapted Abdel-Fattah's book into a daring adventure of freedom and friendship, exile and courage, family and love.
The Voices Project 2015
This is the 2015 installment of The Voices Project - the overwhelmingly successful annual program of monologues developed by ATYP, written by young people, performed by young actors around the country, and seen by over a million people globally online.Featuring: The Baby Elephant Walk by Joel Burrows; Mahla Land by Tahlee Fereday; Two by Two by Sharni McDermott; Say, 'Yes' by Tom Mesker; Sure by Julia Patey; Leo and the Ant by Callan Purcell; Petrol Station by Kathleen Qu矇r矇; Night Shift by Caitlin Richardson; Jun/John by Disapol Savetsila; Accidents Happen by Fiona Spitzkowsky; Pink Hair by Amanda Yeo.
The Servant of Two Masters
Silvio wants to marry Clarice who has to marry Signor Federigo who's really Beatrice in disguise who's come to Turin to find her love Florindo and the whole sorry mess is about to get a whole lot sorrier when Florindo and Beatrice both unknowingly hire the same servant-the brilliantly useless Truffaldino of Bergamo... who's in love with Clarice's servant Smeraldina. Carlo Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters is one of the masterpieces of commedia dell'arte, and Nick Enright and Ron Blair's adaptation has become something of an Australian classic in its own right.
Daisy Moon Was Born This Way
Daisy, you don't wanna fit in. You wanna stand out. Way out. So far out they'll think you were from outta space. Daisy Moon - founder, president and so-far only member of the Batemans Bay Little Monsters Fan Club is in a world of her own. She's the only girl she knows who hasn't got her period yet. She's the only one who can't afford tickets to see her idol Lady Gaga. She's the only one who feels like she doesn't belong. Meanwhile, her brother Noah is back in town after being expelled from his private boarding school, armed with plenty of cash but very little sympathy. When the effortlessly cool Parker turns up and wants to join the Monsters fan club, Daisy's world is sent spinning into a strange and wondrous orbit. Emily Sheehan's dark and funny coming-of-age drama unfolds the insecurity blanket of the teenage years... and covers it in sequins. 'What is so impressive and urgent about Emily's work is that it speaks to both the very truthful and considered peaks and troughs of adolescence, while remaining poignant and resonant for children and adults alike.' - ArtsHub.
