Tasnim Hossain is a director, playwright and dramaturg. She is an Associate Artist at Melbourne Theatre Company, where she directed Never Have I Ever, English and I Wanna Be Yours, with English transferring to Canberra Theatre Centre after an extended run. Her independent production of Yellow Face was nominated for six Sydney Theatre Awards, winning two, including Best Direction. She was also co-director and dramaturg on former foreign correspondent, Jane Hutcheon’s Lost in Shanghai (CAAP/Arts on Tour), which toured nationally after previous seasons in Sydney and Adelaide.

She has directed for NIDA, VCA and WAAPA. As a writer, she was co-recipient of the inaugural NSW Musical Theatre Fellowship (Create NSW/Hayes Theatre Company) and is currently under commission with Queensland Theatre. Her scripts have been produced by Q Theatre and shortlisted for the Griffin Award.

Tasnim has been Artistic Associate at NIDA, STC-CAAP Director, Griffin Studio Artist, and ATYP Resident Playwright.

Photo by Sarah Walker

It’s been 18 years since Vanessa Bates’s Checklist for an Armed Robber first premiered and more than twenty years since the play’s events. But these two real incidents, the Chechen siege of a theatre in Moscow and a young man holding up a bookshop in Newcastle, feel like they could have been ripped from the headlines today.

Over the past several weeks – and in some cases, months – these early-career artists have worked with courage, empathy and openness to explore and present Vanessa’s elegant weaving of these two events.

This work invites us to consider how people are pushed to desperate extremes, and how others choose to respond.

I hope as audiences leave the theatre after the show, not only will they be struck by the skill and dedication of all involved,

– Tasnim Hossain

This performance contains adult themes and some violence; mentions of drug use and sexual assault and depictions of suicidal ideation that may be triggering for some viewers.

We would also like to inform you of the use of haze and fog effects. This production has a 10-minute lockout at commencement of the show.

We advise that this play is suitable for people 15 years and over.