Cirrus@Austlit

'Meet Alice Anderson – a gay mechanic and entrepreneur in 1920s Melbourne

'Meet Joy Hester – a fierce, angry, larger-than life artist in 1940s Melbourne

'Meet Elizabeth Gould – mother, lover, wife, artist of colonial Australia in the 1800s

'Meet Dawn Faizey-Webster – a woman with locked in syndrome completing her PhD with the blink of an eye.

'These remarkable women have been relegated to the sidelines of history and it’s time to bring them centre stage. In four interweaving, funny, moving, thought-provoking monologues, two actors – Mary Steuten and Tess Parker – inhabit these extraordinary women, telling their stories with truth, rawness and vulnerability.'

Source: Melbourne Fringe.

'JOY is an intimate theatrical exploration of Joy Hester's fascinating life by Melbourne playwright Christine Croyden. Performed by actor Claire Larisse Nicholls and directed by Sara Grenfell, the play takes the audience through a series of poignant and revelatory moments and Hester’s encounters with characters such as Sunday Reed, Albert Tucker, and Gray Smith. Poltergeists and dreams break through the piece theatrically and in a haunting soundscape with an original score performed by musician and composer Rosie Westbrook.'

Source: Heide Muséum of Modern Art

'VICTORIOUS was presented as a two-part theatrical event. Scripts written in response to the 2020 worldwide pandemic were showcased at VICTORIOUS, which was intended as a celebration of MWT writers and their need, desire, and right to keep writing at this time, but also served as a celebration of their status as playwrights living in Victoria. Victoria proved to be the state whose many communities, including their arts community, were hardest hit by government-imposed funding cuts, restrictions and successive lockdowns – but our own artists have indeed emerged Victorious, and we hope that the Recordings below will serve as a reminder of their resilience, creativity, and desire to still have their voices heard, during this unprecedented moment in history.'

Source: Melbourne Writers' Theatre.

'A play inspired by Nancy Wake aka The White Mouse.

'War hero, survivor, spy…Nancy Wake doesn’t want another layer of gold paint added to the legend of The White Mouse. Was the price she paid for survival too high?

'In a hallucinatory review of her life, Nancy’s story unfolds with humour and pathos. The Second World War changed her for ever but this time no one is messing with her story and she tells it with trademark roguishness – with a little help from her comrades in France, including a mysterious German spy and cabaret singer who sings Marlene Dietrich’s most beloved songs.'

Source: Australian Plays Transform.

'The White Mouse, a musical inspired by the life of Nancy Wake, has a contemporary feel and is full of action, charismatic characters, poignant moments and dark irreverent humor. The music brims with emotion and subtle undertones of the 1940s. Like Nancy, it is brave, feisty and strong with rousing group songs juxtaposed with a sexy and dangerous tango number and moving ballads.

'It begins with a song about the resilience and spirit of France during the German occupation. When Nancy, as a grumpy old woman, barges through the singers and meets with her biographer, who has come to her Sydney home to interview her about her time with the Resistance. Nancy comes face to face with her younger self and we enter the Forest of Auvergne in 1944 where Nancy is being pursued as The White Mouse.

'The adventure builds and we meet characters such as Denis Rake, Nancy’s friend and radio operator, and Henri Tardivat the handsome local Resistance leader, who is hopelessly attracted to Nancy. As well as other characters, inspired by the men and women of the French Resistance.

'After many twists and turns and a generous helping of romance, Nancy reaches the peak of her power when she leads 2000 men in a successful battle against the Germans. Our story ends where it began, with Nancy and her biographer in Sydney tying up loose ends. Ultimately, as per her dying wish, Nancy is returned as ashes to the forest accompanied by a haunting love ballad.'

Source: The White Mouse website (http://www.thewhitemousemusical.com/#!theshow-/c1khm). (Sighted: 27/05/2016)

Dramatic monologue.

'Lars likes to compose autobiographical sentences about him self and perform his idiosyncratic daily rituals without interruption. But beneath his obsessive and rather enigmatic persona lies the impulse to kill. And, as a globetrotting businessman, the opportunity is never far away.

'When he makes his next flight to London a bereaved father, on a tragic mission to identify the body of his missing daughter, sits across the aisle. While beside him is a young and unsuspecting woman, who could well become Lars’ next victim.'

Source: Australian Plays (https://australianplays.org/script/ASC-1594)

'Eveline, a successful advertising executive, likes to stay in control but is used to making compromises in a job where the dollar rules.

'When Julian, her colleague and former boyfriend, starts to behave strangely and the city she loves turns hostile. Eveline seeks refuge in the company of a stranger with a passion for the French actress, Catherine Deneuve, and suddenly finds herself in the grip of a puzzling nightmare.' (Source: http://australianplays.org/script/ASC-1452)

'How to Survive an Earthquake is the story of two sisters who need to make a seismic shift to repair their relationship. The action moves from suburban Melbourne to earthquake stricken Haiti, where the older sister works as a UN Peacekeeper. Reunited on the eve of their mother's funeral they must find the way from embattled hurt towards forgiveness. ' (Source: http://www.melbwriters.org.au/ )

'The Fallen Tree is a non-naturalistic contemporary tragedy. The drama revolves around three characters: a motherless girl, Hannah, her stepfather, John and a female neighbour, Claire. It is set in a bushfire ravaged rural community where the residents suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

'For Claire the desire to place blame or find a reason for the fires is still palpable as she struggles in her marriage to a much older man. Claire was a friend of Hannah’s mother (deceased) and now feels responsible for her friend’s teenage daughters, who have been left with the property to manage and no one to take care of them. The older girl, Hannah, is an isolated and independent free spirit, who is trying to move on, however her guilt is holding her back ––as a child she witnessed the ongoing sexual abuse of her younger sister, Lily, by their stepfather but remained silent. Hannah now lives with Lily, who has developed anorexia and requires constant care and supervision.

'Through a series of flashbacks we see Hannah and Claire being manipulated by the charismatic stepfather, who eventually undoes himself. The penultimate scene of the play reveals an act of violence, which although brutal and criminal is suggestive of hope, regeneration and solidarity in the face of abuse.' (Source: australianplays.org)

'Evie is a girl who never quite goes about things the right way and always imagines life just as she'd like it to be. That is, until she turns fourteen and falls for a boy who doesn't feel the same for her.

'Strange new emotions take hold, reality becomes a blur and nobody seems to understand who she has become. It is only when her Chinese grandmother's mysterious past and rose-coloured memories are revealed that Evie begins to see through her own tangled thinking, and discover herself.' (From the publisher's website.)