Australia has the Great Australian Play just like America has the American Dream and England has the Great British Bake-Off. These iconic stories endure as myths of national identity and minimised imperialism that keep the masses rallying around idealised, constructed figures of power and triumph. But pretty soon the truth will crawl out from where it’s been buried to wreck havoc on the artists and audiences still buying into the centuries-old lie.
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A community of college students are left reeling after a pair of their fraternity brothers perpetrate a horrible crime against a sorority sister, leaving her hospitalised and unable to speak. In an examination of the after affects of sexual violence, How To Defend Yourself considers the ways these students are being failed by the institutions around them and a society that does not adequately interrogate its rape culture.
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Nearly 100 years ago, the end of the Roaring 20s, when the glittering world of debauchery was crumbling, the sheen of a post-war Europe fading, collaborators Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht wrote into the dingy, decrepit spaces of fallen empires, imagining the immorality that thrived in these shadows.
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Jason is a quiet fellow, navigating puberty, helping his mother after the death of his father, and pursuing his particular interest in sock puppetry. But something shifts when his mother introduces sock puppets to the church as a youth group activity. Was it the proximity to God that turned Tyrone or was his devilish proclivity just laying in wait, biding his time until he had some real ammo? Will the small town of Cypress, Texas ever really know what really happened in that church basement?
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Virtual reality offers endless possibilities including the Hyperdream, an opportunity for paying customers to relive pivotal moments in their lives. Whether they have unfinished business, need a chance to heal, or just want to experience the thrill again, Hyperdream can make that happen. It’s a powerful technology. Perhaps, too powerful?
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Image by Trent Suidgeest
For the second instalment of theatre for film, Red Line Productions presents Will Eno’s meta, wandering monologue piece Thom Pain (Based on Nothing). Surrounded by cameras, Thom scatters himself across the stage, bouncing around the cranium of the black box Old Fitz Theatre like an illusive riddle.
As the possibility of theatre re-openings peaks its head over the horizon, Red Line Productions have filled the Old Fitz audience with cameras for live (streamed) theatre again! The first production in this new socially distanced format is a concert from Elenoa Rokobaro featuring Paulini Curuenavuli and Nana Matapule. For an hour Rokobaro takes the audience through some soul and R&B greats with a splash of pop as she returns to her cabaret repertoire.
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Image by Jasmin Simmons
Mardi Gras celebrations are often centred on taking pride in LGBTQIA+ identities and showcasing the many possibilities available in the margins but, simultaneously, this is a time for acknowledging the survival and resilience of a community routinely subjected to violence and systemic persecution. Our Blood Runs in the Street focuses on the findings of the “NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Gay and Transgender hate crimes between 1970 and 2010”, its reopening in 2019, and the lasting impact of violence.
Image by Clare Hawley
Ava is a young Welsh girl learning to navigate the complex and disappointing structures of adulthood. From institutionalisation to drug and alcohol abuse to inappropriate and dangerous relationships, everywhere she turns is cold and hard. As her 16th birthday approaches and she must find alternate accommodation from the children’s home, all of the threads of Ava’s distressing life become a bit too much.
Image by Phil Erbacher
Agamemnon is a rock goddess on an international tour to grow her fame like never before. But she has a complicated family past that her detractors bandy about at the least provocation; spreading rumours that tarnish her unbelievable success. In Ang Collin’s reimagining of the Greek tragedy, the limitations of loyalty are tested in a mother’s struggle for selfhood.
Night Writes 