Rita Kalnejais Rita Kalnejais i(A129596 works by)
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 y separately published work icon First Love Is the Revolution Rita Kalnejais , 2019 Strawberry Hills : Currency Press , 2019 14531814 2019 single work drama

'This is a play about hunger and desire. It’s Romeo and Juliet pushed to deranged extremes, where the unlikely sweethearts are a 14-year old boy and a young fox with brutal birthrights.

'Rdeca’s whole family have fleas. Her mum is pushing her into making her first kill, a snivelling mole, before she’s ready.

'Basti is being bullied at school by kids who call him a shrimp. His dad is too busy flirting with the neighbour to be of any real help.

'Beneath the light of a full moon, Basti captures Rdeca, and so begins a starcross’d romance between hunter and prey.'

Source: Griffin Theatre Company.
1 7 form y separately published work icon Babyteeth Rita Kalnejais , ( dir. Shannon Murphy ) Australia : Whitefalk Films , 2019 13197206 2019 single work film/TV

'When seriously ill teenager Milla Finlay falls in love with smalltime drug dealer Moses, it’s her parents’ worst nightmare. But as Milla’s first brush with love brings her a new lust for life, things get messy and traditional morals go out the window. Milla shows everyone in her orbit—her parents, Moses, a sensitive music teacher, a budding child violinist, and a disarmingly honest pregnant neighbor—how to live like you have nothing to lose. What might have been a disaster for the Finlay family instead leads to letting go and finding grace in the glorious chaos of life. Babyteeth joyously explores how good it is not to be dead and how far we will go for love.'

Source: Venice International Film Festival.
1 4 y separately published work icon Babyteeth Rita Kalnejais , 2012 Sydney : Currency Press , 2012 Z1841679 2012 single work drama

'Time for a comedy - a mad, gorgeous, bittersweet comedy about how good it is not to be dead yet.

'A group of more or less ordinary Sydneysiders go about their lives: Anna makes toast, Henry dresses for work, Milla catches the train to school, Moses deals drugs - that kind of thing. But hovering above this unholy parade of life is the sobering fact that Milla will die before her 15th birthday.

'Rita Kalnejais is a young playwright of uncommon genius. She looks at the humdrum world around us and sees something radically alive. Dogs, Paganini, figs, an eight-year-old Vietnamese violin prodigy, morphine, clear skies and a Latvian immigrant are amongst the magnificent conflagration of ingredients which make up this wonderful, funny play. Written specially for Belvoir, its theme is what Rita calls the violent sweetness of life.

'Eamon Flack (The End, As You Like It) directs a play of unexpected brilliance about that very old and almost forgotten quality of life: grace.' (Source: Belvoir St Theatre website)
1 How to Breathe through Someone Else's Mouth Rita Kalnejais , 2011 single work prose
— Appears in: Ampersand Magazine , Autumn no. 3 2011; (p. 192-199)
1 2 Money Shots Angus Cerini , Tahli Corin , Duncan Graham , Rita Kalnejais , Zoe Pepper , 2011 single work drama 'Five new fifteen minute plays about money from some of Australia's most exciting new theatremakers - Angus Cerini, Tahli Corin, Duncan Graham, Rita Kalnejais, Zoe Pepper. Australia's young guns turn out their wallets and invite you to audit the contents. What can't be bought with the cash therein? Is there a direct correlation between bank balance and self worth? What is a human life worth and who has a right to determine that value? At what point does honest work begin to feel like prostitution?' (Source: http://www.sydneytheatre.com.au.)
1 3 B.C. Rita Kalnejais , 2009 single work drama 'In a recognisable modern world of lounge rooms, food courts, bus stops and dinner tables, divine impregnation is the last thing you'd expect. "B.C." depicts Mary, still living with her parents, as a young hairdresser with a romantic interest in store clerk, Joseph. Mary has complex connections with her family. Her relationship with her father borders on taboo, there is the strain of her mother Anne's cancer treatment fraying the maternal bond. Mary gives her honest, sisterly love to Gabriel, her mentally disabled brother who paints his own landscape with avian fantasies and abrupt tracts of ultra-violent reverie. The family argue over feature walls and accept each other's many failings just like many other families... until Mary is arrested by a higher force. Her life will never be the same again.' Source: www.hayloftproject.com/ (Sighted 26/11/2009).
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