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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Brianna is a stand-up comedian. This is her life: an unfortunate name, a boring childhood, slow self-realisation, a late coming-out. Drink. Standing in smelly rooms with strange men who all tell the same jokes. Vomiting on stage. Carrying on anyway. Is there a reason? Probably not. Just a way of coping with your own mediocrity. Whose life is this anyway?
'Zoë Coombs Marr’s brilliant new play is a portrait of a life in a comedy routine. Well, five overlapping comedy routines, from five Briannas at different ages, performed by five foolhardy actresses. It is funny. And it is not funny. It is about being funny when funny is all you have.
'Is This Thing On? is a kind of Don Quixote for the female comic – a magnificent and stupid quest for one shining moment of specialness which may have already happened.' (Production summary)
Production Details
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Performed at Belvoir Downstairs Theatre 2-26 October 2014.
Directors: Kit Brookman & Zoë Coombs Marr.
Set & Costume Designer: Ralph Myers.
Lighting Designer: Verity Hampson.
Composer & Sound Designer: Steve Toulmin.
Stage Manager: Mel Dyer.
Cast: Madeleine Benson, Genevieve Giuffre, Fiona Press, Susan Prior, and Nat Randall.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Figuring Themselves Out
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings , January no. 28 2017; (p. 139-145) 'Why, in 2017, is there still such an absence of queer female narratives on the stage?' (139) -
Five Ages of a Stand-Up Expose Tears of a Clown
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 28 September 2016; (p. 15)
— Review of Is This Thing On? 2014 single work drama -
Five Actresses, One Role, Planty of Laughs in Bristling Comedy
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 8 October 2014; (p. 13)
— Review of Is This Thing On? 2014 single work drama -
Girl Most Likely
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 3 October 2014; (p. 4-5)
— Review of Is This Thing On? 2014 single work drama
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Girl Most Likely
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 3 October 2014; (p. 4-5)
— Review of Is This Thing On? 2014 single work drama -
Five Actresses, One Role, Planty of Laughs in Bristling Comedy
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 8 October 2014; (p. 13)
— Review of Is This Thing On? 2014 single work drama -
Five Ages of a Stand-Up Expose Tears of a Clown
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 28 September 2016; (p. 15)
— Review of Is This Thing On? 2014 single work drama -
Figuring Themselves Out
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings , January no. 28 2017; (p. 139-145) 'Why, in 2017, is there still such an absence of queer female narratives on the stage?' (139)
