'The fascinating true story of Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross, Sydney a quiet revolution in Australian history, from a side street of the red-light district.
'Alana Valentine's mother, Janice, was married by the charismatic and controversial Methodist minister Ted Noffs at the Wayside Chapel in 1969. Not long after that, however, Janice died, leaving behind many unresolved questions for her family. Years later, Alana found a photo of her mother on her wedding day, and the longing to speak to her about that day â" a day when her mother radiated hope for a new beginning â" drove her to seek out and find others who had begun new chapters of their lives at Wayside, an institution that is etched into the folklore of Sydney and this country more generally.
'As part of the research process for the play that was to become Wayside Bride, staged at Belvoir Theatre in 2022, Alana set up a website where people could upload stories and photos of their own marriages. This book contains many of the remarkable stories that didn't make their way into the play, stories that reshape our understanding of this country's social history, from a uniquely Australian institution where people have been welcomed for decades in spite of social taboos around race, class, religion and sexuality.' (Publication summary)
Wayside Bride
2021
Strawberry Hills
:
Currency Press
,
2023
21655270
2021
single work
drama
'After years of research, and a lot of help from the community, Alana Valentine’s much-anticipated story of a little chapel in a back street of the Cross premieres at Belvoir. The Wayside Chapel under the Reverend Ted Noffs set itself up for those who might not find a place elsewhere to welcome them, and over the years has become a home and haven in a sometimes brutal town.
'This play is about the quietly revolutionary act of marriage – sometimes in the face of fierce resistance from family, from society, from the church hierarchy. It’s the story of a space where those who didn’t quite fit in to the mainstream could have their walk down the aisle.
'Moving, inspiring, Valentine’s play is about all of us – and a portrait of this city at its raffish, recalcitrant best.' (Production summary)
