Shit single work   drama   - 60 minutes
Issue Details: First known date: 2015... 2015 Shit
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

'What of the women and girls who defy gender demarcations, who transgress the boundaries and restraints of social order and expectation?

'When a girl spits, or swears, or screams, or shouts, or pulls down her pants to moon someone from a car, or she laughs too loudly, or she’s too shrill, or she pulls up her t-shirt and flashes her tits, or she fights, really fights, head butts and with her fists, or she fucks too much or cuts her hair too short, and wears too much lipstick or none at all, or tells everyone she’s got a dick and she’s not a girl at all, all we want to do with this girl is lock her up and throw away the key. Out of control girls – angry, nasty girls – are a sight to behold. They’re terrifying, electrifying, they’re everything girls shouldn’t be, and we hate them.

'This is a work about these girls.

'Their names are Billy, Bobby and Sam.

'There’s not a single moment when the three young women transcend their ugliness. There’s no indication of a better, or in fact any, inner life. They don’t believe in anything. They’re mean, foul-mouthed, downtrodden, hard-bitten, utterly damaged women. They’re neither salt of the earth nor sexy. They love no one and no one loves them. They believe the world is shit, that their lives are shit, that they are shit.' (Production summary)

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon Shit Patricia Cornelius , ( dir. Susie Dee et. al. )agent Australia : Step Productions , 2023 25961592 2023 single work film/TV

'An uncompromising cinematic slap to the face from co-directors Trudy Hellier and Susie Dee, and writer, celebrated playwright Patricia Cornelius, the shattering new Australian conversation-starter SHIT is a psychological drama which unfolds over one long night of incarceration in a bleak holding cell.

'Caged for hours on end, tough-nuts Billy (Nicci Wilks), Bobby (Sarah Ward) and Sam (Peta Brady) slowly, uncertainly reveal their stories to each other. Theirs are stories of a lifetime of violence, of abuse, and of institutionalisation, and they’re all told with unsentimental, sometimes comical, and often gut-wrenching insight.'

Source: Inner West Film Festival.

Production Details

  • Produced by the Melbourne Theatre Company. Performed at Southbank Theatre, The Lawler : 25 June-5 July 2015.

    Director: Susie Dee.

    Set & Costume Designer: Marg Horwell.

    Lighting Designer: Rachel Burke.

    Sound Designer: Anna Liebzeit.

    Production/Stage Manager: Bec Moore.

    Producer: Ebony Bott.

    Cast: Peta Brady, Sarah Ward, and Nicci Wilks.


    Performed at Sydney’s Seymour Centre 18-29 July 2017.


    Produced by HotHouse Theatre, Albury-Wodonga, 17-21 July 2018.

    Director: Susie Dee.

    Set and Costume Designer: Marg Horwell.

    Lighting Designer: Rachel Burke.

    Composer: Anna Liebzeit.

    Cast: Peta Brady, Sarah Ward, and Nicci Wilks.

    Producer: Laura Milke-Garner.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 2015
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Muff [and] MinusOneSister [and] SHIT Vanessa Badham , Anna Barnes , Patricia Cornelius , Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2017 11074705 2017 selected work drama

    'Three confronting and provocative plays about women. Muff by Van Badham – Winner of the 2014 NSW Premiers Award, the Nick Enright Award for Playwriting, Muff explores women, sex and relationships; a horrific, random rape of a young woman and the threads from this event that continue to wrap and bind their way into lives years after the physical injuries have healed. MinusOneSister by Anna Barnes – Sophocles & Electra is furiously wrenched into the present and told from the point of view of the teenagers. Eternal obsessions mingle with the obsessions of our times, bloodshed goes hand in hand with Bacardi Breezers and Facebook, and a chilling portrait emerges of a family irreversibly shattered by grief and guilt. SHIT by Patricia Cornelius – SHIT takes us into the world of three women – Billy, Bobby and Sam – three women from a violent, impoverished underclass who have landed in prison together after a vicious incident. These are the underbelly of womenhood we as a society so rarely want to admit exist.

    Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2017

Works about this Work

Patricia Cornelius’s Love and Shit Alison Croggon , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 8-14 June 2019;

'Love and Shit, an exhilarating double bill by Patricia Cornelius at fortyfivedownstairs, expose the uncomfortable realities of Australia’s underclass. In doing so, these plays remind us how vital theatre can be. By Alison Croggon.' 

Children of the Tall Ships Kelly Cheung , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , Winter vol. 77 no. 2 2018; (p. 178-182)

'No rays of light sneaking long fingers across the pale skin of morning. Not at this time. Beyond the window glass the stars shone precision silver, dew casting a silvery skeen across thirsty grass. I’d lie awake in the darkness waiting to hear the cough of the Toyota bring the catch home and him with it. I’d learnt to wait for the fluorescent light to cast diamante warmth through the white double doors windowed by an earlier deco-age of artistic privacy. When opened, conversations drifted like song, bounced by high ceilings and slick laminate floors. But closed, sound muffled and could just be waves brought on the breeze from the beach to the east. Shoulders alert, chin lifted, I’d listen for the soft clang of tin pots and the fwooosh of running water, the throw of the salt, the patient silence of the boil, the frenzied clicking of the first batch thrown to fat bubbles.' (Introduction)

Bold as ‘SHIT’ Fiona McGregor , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Monthly Blog , July 2017;

'Susie Dee and Patricia Cornelius deliver the wake-up call Australian theatre needs.'

Review : Shit Andrew Fuhrmann , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: ABR : Arts 2016; Australian Book Review , June-July no. 382 2016; (p. 39)

— Review of Shit Patricia Cornelius , 2015 single work drama
In a World Without Dreams, Fusillades of F-words Offer the Best Defence Chris Boyd , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian , 9 May 2016; (p. 14)

— Review of Shit Patricia Cornelius , 2015 single work drama
Inside Story of Women on Outer Cameron Woodhead , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 29 June 2015;

— Review of Shit Patricia Cornelius , 2015 single work drama
In a World Without Dreams, Fusillades of F-words Offer the Best Defence Chris Boyd , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian , 9 May 2016; (p. 14)

— Review of Shit Patricia Cornelius , 2015 single work drama
Review : Shit Andrew Fuhrmann , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: ABR : Arts 2016; Australian Book Review , June-July no. 382 2016; (p. 39)

— Review of Shit Patricia Cornelius , 2015 single work drama
The Life In Them Words Ben Brooker , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , November 2016;
Bold as ‘SHIT’ Fiona McGregor , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Monthly Blog , July 2017;

'Susie Dee and Patricia Cornelius deliver the wake-up call Australian theatre needs.'

Children of the Tall Ships Kelly Cheung , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , Winter vol. 77 no. 2 2018; (p. 178-182)

'No rays of light sneaking long fingers across the pale skin of morning. Not at this time. Beyond the window glass the stars shone precision silver, dew casting a silvery skeen across thirsty grass. I’d lie awake in the darkness waiting to hear the cough of the Toyota bring the catch home and him with it. I’d learnt to wait for the fluorescent light to cast diamante warmth through the white double doors windowed by an earlier deco-age of artistic privacy. When opened, conversations drifted like song, bounced by high ceilings and slick laminate floors. But closed, sound muffled and could just be waves brought on the breeze from the beach to the east. Shoulders alert, chin lifted, I’d listen for the soft clang of tin pots and the fwooosh of running water, the throw of the salt, the patient silence of the boil, the frenzied clicking of the first batch thrown to fat bubbles.' (Introduction)

Patricia Cornelius’s Love and Shit Alison Croggon , 2019 single work column
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 8-14 June 2019;

'Love and Shit, an exhilarating double bill by Patricia Cornelius at fortyfivedownstairs, expose the uncomfortable realities of Australia’s underclass. In doing so, these plays remind us how vital theatre can be. By Alison Croggon.' 

Last amended 27 Mar 2023 14:20:47
X