The Puzzle single work   drama  
Issue Details: First known date: 2024... 2024 The Puzzle
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'When you’ve got the right piece, you’re in no doubt.

'All aboard for the world premiere of a dazzling new comedy from Australia’s most prolific and venerated playwright, David Williamson.

'When the Dunstan Playhouse opened in 1974, former Artistic Director, George Ogilvie commissioned Williamson to write the now legendary play The Department for State Theatre Company South Australia. Fifty years later, the master wordsmith delivers to Adelaide audiences a delicious new black comedy about marriage, desire, polyamory and parenthood set to hit those same heights.

'Married couple Mandy and Craig are bored with their (mostly) monogamous relationship. Eager to inject some vim into their vows, they book themselves in for a “lifestyle” cruise, where they meet Brian and Michele, similarly looking for some stimulation at sea…

'Meanwhile, the buttoned-up Drew and his free-spirited daughter, Cassie are just trying to reconnect on what he thought was an “art” tour!

'The keys go in the jar, the recriminations flow in the bar.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Production Details

  • Presented by State Theatre Company of South Australia at the Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre (world premiere), 20 September - 12 October 2024.

    Director: Shannon Rush.

    Cast: Ahunim Abebe, Chris Asimos, and Erik Thomson.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Theatre Review : The Puzzle, Dunstan Playhouse Peter Burdon , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: ArtsHub , September 2024;

— Review of The Puzzle David Williamson , 2024 single work drama

'State Theatre South Australia celebrates 50 years of the Dunstan Playhouse with a David Williamson world premiere.'

Australian Playwright David Williamson Comes Out of Retirement to Take on Non-monogamy in The Puzzle Hannah Story , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , September 2024;

— Review of The Puzzle David Williamson , 2024 single work drama

'Playwright David Williamson has spent more than 50 years satirising the lives of the white middle-class.'

With The Puzzle, David Williamson Shows His Continual Capacity to Satirise the Middle-class Russell Fewster , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 25 September 2024;

— Review of The Puzzle David Williamson , 2024 single work drama

'Fun, sex, Renoir and a reckoning might be a succinct way to introduce the new play by David Williamson, The Puzzle. As Williamson noted to me in the foyer, “life would be pretty boring without sex”. However, he writes, in the production program that this comes with a proviso that licentiousness without any moral grounding can lead to human beings inadvertently “upending their lives”.'  (Introduction)

With The Puzzle, David Williamson Shows His Continual Capacity to Satirise the Middle-class Russell Fewster , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 25 September 2024;

— Review of The Puzzle David Williamson , 2024 single work drama

'Fun, sex, Renoir and a reckoning might be a succinct way to introduce the new play by David Williamson, The Puzzle. As Williamson noted to me in the foyer, “life would be pretty boring without sex”. However, he writes, in the production program that this comes with a proviso that licentiousness without any moral grounding can lead to human beings inadvertently “upending their lives”.'  (Introduction)

Australian Playwright David Williamson Comes Out of Retirement to Take on Non-monogamy in The Puzzle Hannah Story , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , September 2024;

— Review of The Puzzle David Williamson , 2024 single work drama

'Playwright David Williamson has spent more than 50 years satirising the lives of the white middle-class.'

Theatre Review : The Puzzle, Dunstan Playhouse Peter Burdon , 2024 single work review
— Appears in: ArtsHub , September 2024;

— Review of The Puzzle David Williamson , 2024 single work drama

'State Theatre South Australia celebrates 50 years of the Dunstan Playhouse with a David Williamson world premiere.'

Last amended 24 Oct 2023 13:15:05
X