'I don’t know when I first saw it / In a memory, a premonition, or a dream.
'It was a house and it was on fire / I was the house and I was on fire.
'A suburban netball team. A new player. Cass says she wants to fit in but if she won’t play by their rules why does she bother coming at all? She claims to see something they cannot, a warning of sorts. All the other women want to do is play. But this player will push each of them to a point of furious revelation. Nothing will be left on the court once these women are done with their reckoning.
'A sweaty play about the petty and the profound, the mundane and the mythic, Contest asks how we might be with each other if we don’t have to win.
'Contest is presented in association with New Working Group and Bureau of Works.' (Production summary)
Contest was originally commissioned by Malthouse Theatre through the support of the Malcolm Robertson Foundation. It was seeded through Malthouse Theatre’s Besen Family Artist Program, and developed through the City of Yarra Performance Investigations Program. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. The production is supported by the Besen Family Foundation.
Green Room Awards:
Presented in association with New Working Group and Bureau of Works. Performed at Main Hall, Northcote Town Hall 25 July - 4 August 2018.
Written by Emilie Collyer
Directed by Prue Clark
Movement Direction: Nat Cursio and Alice Dixon
Set and Costume Design: Romanie Harper
Lighting Design: Amelia Lever-Davidson
Sound Design: Emah Fox
Script Dramaturg: Mark Pritchard
Producer: Erin Milne (Bureau of Works)
Cast: Alice Ansara, Natasha Herbert, Kate Hood, Sonya Suares and Emily Tomlins
Production and Stage Manager: Adelaide Harney
Assistant Stage Manager: Harriet Wallace-Mead
'I feel ashamed, facing a roomful of artists on the first day of rehearsals for my new play Contest. ‘I’m sorry,’ I say. ‘I tried my hardest but we didn’t get the Creative Victoria funding.’ Everyone in the room has already signed on for the project, based on modest fees, thanks to other funding we have secured. The Creative Victoria money would have ensured paying all actors at Equity (performance industry union) minimum rates.' (Introduction)
'I feel ashamed, facing a roomful of artists on the first day of rehearsals for my new play Contest. ‘I’m sorry,’ I say. ‘I tried my hardest but we didn’t get the Creative Victoria funding.’ Everyone in the room has already signed on for the project, based on modest fees, thanks to other funding we have secured. The Creative Victoria money would have ensured paying all actors at Equity (performance industry union) minimum rates.' (Introduction)