About the show
Australian Premiere
"Does it scare you that the future might speak a language that you can’t understand?"
A young female playwright and an older male director find themselves alone in an empty theatre. She wants a new form of theatre that dismantles capitalism and overturns the patriarchy. He’s turned on by the commercial potential of her rage.
He flirts. She stares him down. She wants to do things her way. She wants to change the shape of the world. And without warning it does, revealing stories nested within stories like Russian dolls, each more brilliant and daring than the last.
The Writer premiered at the Almeida Theatre in 2018 and takes aim at the business of making art – the compromises it demands, the people it chews up, and the endless ways in which patriarchal power can infect . It rocks the very foundations upon which theatre is built.
Content Warning:
The Writer contains sexual themes including partial nudity and depictions of sex. Scenes also contain course language, gendered violence, and the use of haze, low fog and flashing lights. Recommended only for audiences 18 and above.
Ella Hickson is an award-winning writer whose work has been performed throughout the UK and abroad.
Her work includes: Swive [Elizabeth] (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe, 2019); Anna (National Theatre, 2019); The Writer (Almeida Theatre, 2018); Oil (Almeida Theatre, 2016); Wendy & Peter Pan (Royal Shakespeare Company, 2013 and 2015; Tokyo, 2021); Riot Girls (Radio 4); Boys (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton/Headlong Theatre/HighTide Festival Theatre, 2012); The Authorised Kate Bane (Grid Iron/Traverse Theatre, 2012); Rightfully Mine (Radio 4); Precious Little Talent (Trafalgar Studios/Tantrums Productions, 2011), Hot Mess (Arcola Tent/Tantrums Productions, 2010) and Eight (Trafalgar Studios/Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh, 2008/9).
Zoë Hollyoak is a director and creative producer who has worked across a range of organisations including Belvoir, Performing Lines, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) and Black Swan State Theatre Company of WA. She holds a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Performance Making) from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, and a Master of Fine Arts (Directing) from NIDA.
Zoë is currently the Program Producer for Performance Space, Australia’s leading organisation for the development and presentation of experimental art. Zoë combines her significant producing and project management skills with an extensive artistic background that includes theatre and film projects for PICA, triple j Unearthed, Belvoir, The Blue Room Theatre, The Old Fitz and the State Theatre Centre of WA. Zoë also runs essential workers, a Sydney-based theatre company that presents and produces new works.
Zoë’s recent projects include Collapsible (Red Line Productions), Never Closer (25a), Horses (25a) Antigonick (NIDA), Slutdrop (Multiple Fringe World Winner) and Cotton Wool Kid (State Theatre Centre of WA).
Cast
In order of appearance
Female Actor/Girlfriend
Yasna Delo
Male Actor/Boyfriend
Chris Turner
Writer
Teodora Matović
Director
Hadrian Le Goff
Understudies
Caleb Jamieson
Amy Goedecke
Gallery
Director
Zoë Hollyoak*
Set Designer
Paris Burrows
Costume Designer
Jessi Seymour
Lighting Designer
Madeleine Picard
Sound Designer
Julianna Stankiewicz
Voice Coach
Eleanor Stankiewicz*
Movement Coach
Emma Maye*
Intimacy Coordinator
Shondelle Pratt*
Assistant Director/s
Fernando De Miguel Fuertes
Temuulen Jargalsaikhan
Production Stage Manager
Grace Sackman
Deputy Stage Manager
Sherydan Simson
Assistant Stage Manager/s
Niamh Nolland
Thomas Shepherd
Poppy Townsend
Construction Manager
Lyndsey Brown**
Nicholas Day**
Costume Supervisor
Maverick Durkin
Properties Supervisor
Jess McIntosh
Head Electrician
Carol Gonzales
Costume Makers
Nina Price
Giulia Zanardo
Set/Props Assistant Designer
Mia MacCormick
Costume Assistant Designer
Daisy Hughes
Construction Assistants
Evangelina Doosey Shaw
Michael Fisher
Zoe Howard
Costume Assistant
Imahn Pholi
Properties Assistant
Emily Lilley
Mechanist
Matt Phillips
Floor LX
Thomas Howieson
Technical Assistant(s)
Emma Clulow
Guinevere Fisher
Finlay Hogan
Matt Phillips
Amelie McCarthy
Tung Son Tran Tat Thang
* = Guest
** = Staff
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