Flashpoint: New Writing for Theatre

Rehearsed readings of winning scripts from The RE Ross Trust Playwrights’ Script Development Awards, at the State Library of Victoria.

Wednesday 23 July

Excerpts from three scripts, featuring outstanding Australian actors including: Grant Cartwright, Georgina Capper, David Whitely, Sarah Sutherland, Gareth Yuen and Jessie Wei. Followed by Q&A with the playwrights and artists, facilitated by Kristy Edmunds, Artistic Director, Melbourne International Arts Festival.

Topsy - Kit Lazaroo

It’s 1906 and three Australians arrive on Coney Island, New York, to witness the execution by electrocution of a rogue elephant called Topsy. Bruna is a journalist documenting the event for a small newsletter, and she befriends an illiterate adventuress, Clothilde. They encounter Grenitch, a would-be revolutionary, at the Hotel Scheherezade. The three deprive each other of sleep with their fears, secrets and suspicions, while the elephant-keeper, Vasco, tries to extract money from them. Clothilde’s true identity is gradually revealed in this story of cruelty and incarceration in the carnival world of peepshows and alleyways.

Kite of Broken Strings - Jianguo Wu and John Ashton

In the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, disgraced journalist Wang, artist Zheng and friend Zhao re-badge themselves as Michael, Grace and Nancy and migrate to a strange, brash land to ‘re-start the clock’, sustained by the ideal of democratic freedom. Michael and Grace slave at the Dragon Court restaurant, where they laugh at owner Peter Chow’s corrupted Cantonese cuisine and Australian–Chinese identity. Michael’s father is dying – but returning to his deathbed would only disappoint his family. This is a story of people living in two worlds, yearning for the new while not fully acknowledging the old.

Red Sky Morning - Tom Holloway

This work (formerly Love My Black Dog) reveals a day in the life of a family living in rural Australia – father, mother and teenage daughter. Their three voices intertwine in a simultaneous 'choral' monologue, enveloping the audience in the characters’ lives. Within this passionate and loving family, communication has dried up, and only a match is needed to spark a bushfire. Previously described as 'beautiful' and 'astonishing', this is a funny, moving, honest and shocking work that sets a very Australian story in an innovative theatrical form.

Time: 7.30pm
Venue: Village Roadshow Theatrette (Entry 3, La Trobe Street)
Bookings: 03 8664 7016 or bookings@slv.vic.gov.au
Cost: Free; drinks available for purchase from 7pm

The RE Ross Trust Playwrights' Script Development Awards, administered by the State Library of Victoria, provide support to Victorian-based writers to develop their play scripts.