A passionate and unflinching collection of three award-winning plays by and about women, featuring an introduction by Alison Croggon.
In Muff by Van Badham, the wounds of a horrific event are re-opened as Eve tries to navigate a friendship with her ex and his new partner. The play uses both grim sadness and dark humour to challenge perceptions of feminism and self-image in the prism of sexual love. Winner of the 2015 NSW Premier's Award for Drama in 2015.
'An intelligent, challenging, deeply thoughtful and highly original piece of work. In a world where gender relationships remain the minefield they always were, and where male violence towards women remains writ large... this is a play for our time and a groundbreaking piece of theatre.' - NSW Premier's Award judge's report
Anna Barnes' MinusOneSister is a contemporary retelling of Sophocles' classic tragedy, Electra. The teenage siblings take the stage, and loyalties are challenged as each confronts their own grief and guilt. Barnes challenges patterns of blame that persist today when dealing with violence and sexuality. Winner of the 2013 Patrick White Playwrights' Award.
'Barnes has tapped into something essential and immediate about young women, about anxiety and terror and anger and a constant, destructive lack of control over their own bodies and lives.' - Time Out
Patricia Cornelius' SHIT is rife with ugliness. Billy, Bobby and Sam speak with the voices of those who've survived foster care, institutionalisation, and neglect. They love no-one and no-one loves them. They believe the world is shit, that their lives are shit, that they are shit. Winner of the 2015 Green Room Awards for Independent Theatre: Best Production and Best Writing and the 2017 Sydney Theatre Award for Best New Australian Work, and shortlisted for the 2016 Victorian Premier's Award for Drama.
'Cornelius looks deep into the hearts and minds of those who have been pushed aside, and finds contradictions that are at once complex, difficult, admirable and scary.' - Ben Neutze, Daily Review
Badham, Van: - VAN BADHAM is the award-winning writer of more than 30 internationally-produced plays for stage and radio. Her first novel, Burnt Snow, was released in Australia in September 2010. She is a columnist for The Guardian, Australia and a regular panellist on ABC Television's The Drum. Badham has had plays and musical theatre staged at six Edinburgh Festivals, in London at venues including the Royal Court Theatre, the Bush (for Paines Plough), the Battersea Arts Centre and Theatre503 and on the UK touring circuit. Her theatre commissioners in Australia include MTC, Malthouse, Griffin, Merrigong, HotHouse, Terrapin and the Tasmanian Theatre Company. Her plays have had professional productions across America, Canada, Iceland, Germany, Switzerland and Austria and her international theatre commissions include Swamplands for the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia, The Story of D-Star K for the Bern Stadttheater in Switzerland and Empire of the Rats for Luxi Ltd, UK. Badham's radio commissions have been for the BBC World Service, Radio 4, and Radio 3 and her first screenplay, We Come Home, was developed with a grant from the Australian Writer' Guild. Her Australian theatre productions include The Bloody Chamber for Malthouse, The Bull, the Moon and the Coronet of Stars for Griffin, Merrigong and Hothouse, Big Baby for Terrapin and Late Night Story at the Adelaide Fringe. Badham is a former Literary Manager of the Finborough Theatre London (2009-2011) and was Artistic Associate at the Malthouse Melbourne (2011-2013) before moving to her present position at the Guardian.
