'Mortido is a crime drama, revenge tragedy and morality play rolled into one. In other words, a quintessential Sydney tale.
'It begins with a Mexican fable about death and ends in the Western suburbs. In between it takes in the public housing on Belvoir Street, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, quinoa, Nazi Germany, Qantas, Coca-Cola, a seventh birthday party, the Surry Hills police, the property market and a body in the harbour. The connective tissue? Cocaine.
'Jimmy is a small-time dealer and Monte is a biggish-time distributor. Grubbe is a detective. They all want the same thing: to live out their lives in leisure. And a water view would be nice. But for Jimmy and Monte to win, Grubbe has to lose. Same goes the other way.
'Angela Betzien is a virtuoso playwright who writes a funny line as well as she writes a thrilling plot and a furious social critique. Mortido is her most ambitious play so far, and a brilliant portrait of the emerald city: familiar, bizarre, glorious and mean.
'Colin Friels and director Leticia Cáceres (Miss Julie, The Dark Room) team up for this remarkable new play about crime, globalisation and the killer desire for a bigger house.' (Publication summary)
A co-commission with Playwriting Australia.
Co-production by Belvoir Street Theatre and State Theatre Company of South Australia.
Produced at State Theatre Company of South Australia 16 - 31 October 2015.
Produced at Belvoir Upstairs Theatre 7 November - 23 December 2015.
Cast: Tom Conroy and Colin Friels.
Director: Leticia Cáceres.
Lighting Designer: Geoff Cobham.
Dramaturg: Anthea Williams.
'This chapter considers how Australian playwrights have been pushing at the edges of the realist frame between 2007 and 2020 by employing exaggerated dramaturgies and direct address that transcends and remakes the Aussie Naturalism that predominated on the mainstage in decades prior. Far from the dour realism political theatre might conjure, these plays are instead boldly theatrical and playful without losing any of their accusatory edge. This lineage is illustrated with reference to: Patricia Cornelius and her play Savages (2013); Mortido (2016) by Angela Betzien; and Meyne Wyatt’s City of Gold (2019) in both its theatrical and extra-theatrical performances. A duologue between Betzien and Cornelius follows, in which they discuss the usefulness of realism and political theatre as analytical frames for their work.' (Publication abstract)
'This chapter considers how Australian playwrights have been pushing at the edges of the realist frame between 2007 and 2020 by employing exaggerated dramaturgies and direct address that transcends and remakes the Aussie Naturalism that predominated on the mainstage in decades prior. Far from the dour realism political theatre might conjure, these plays are instead boldly theatrical and playful without losing any of their accusatory edge. This lineage is illustrated with reference to: Patricia Cornelius and her play Savages (2013); Mortido (2016) by Angela Betzien; and Meyne Wyatt’s City of Gold (2019) in both its theatrical and extra-theatrical performances. A duologue between Betzien and Cornelius follows, in which they discuss the usefulness of realism and political theatre as analytical frames for their work.' (Publication abstract)
