Cirrus@Austlit

'The full force of nature

'From the monumental playwriting talents of 2020 Patrick White Playwrights Fellow Angus Cerini (The Bleeding Tree, Wonnangatta) comes this epic and poetic story of love, loss and renewal.

'Stage and screen legends Colin Friels and Kerry Armstrong play Ray and Floss, a farming couple who have lived off the land their entire adult lives. Through boom times and bust, they’ve been each other’s support and constant companion. But at the tail end of a once-in-a-generation drought, both are on the precipice of earth-shattering change and transformation.

'Into the Shimmering World will beguile audiences with its gothic and dreamlike take on the Australian landscape, its lush and musical language, and its powerful exploration of the depths of our national psyche.

'STC Director of New Work and Artistic Development Paige Rattray (Do not go gentle...) will premiere this new Australian masterpiece in the glorious expanse of an extended Wharf 1 Theatre, in a production that is set to be a rich evocation of the mysteries of the natural world and a lyrical look at humanity’s changing relationship to it.

'What awaits Ray and Floss when the drought finally breaks?' (Production summary)

'Wonnangatta Station, 1918. Two men arrive at a dark and empty farmhouse looking for the manager, their friend Jim Barclay. No one’s heard from him for more than a month. Something’s amiss. Then a grim discovery sets the men off on a journey across the harsh Australian terrain, looking for answers, maybe for revenge.'

Source: Sydney Theatre Company.

The dilapidated old caravan might be full of musty carpet and faded dreams, but for years a mother and daughter have called it home.

With nowhere else to go, Judy and daughter Donna live on top of each other, knowing the other won’t leave: they’re stuck, and will be till the end.

Judy holds court from the caravan’s double bed, surrounded by pills, a breathing machine and a flat-screen TV. Donna is just desperate not to die there. Donna’s looking to be whisked away by a Tinder date, but as the phone pings and Judy sucks oxygen from a mask in the tiny, cluttered space, they bicker and make up, scream and threaten violence and dream of better things.

Bitter and hilarious, tender and toxic, Caravan is a darkly comic look at life on the margins and the universal need for love.' (Production Summary)

'In an isolated farmhouse, outside a small country town – a woman and her daughters have just killed their abusive man of the house. Known throughout the district as a cur and a dog, the women set about disposing of his body. However their task becomes fraught when several of the local villagers choose to pay a visit and grow suspicious at their behaviour – will their act become exposed before they can dispose of the body? A lyrical exploration of family, violence and revenge against a backdrop of a brutal, rural Australian landscape.' (Play summary)

'A man sits alone in a room assailed by the world around him. He does not know how to act, nor what impact his actions could possibly have. When he is faced with a situation that forces him to respond, what will it reveal?

'Angus Cerini is utterly unique and very exciting. Following the success of multi-award winning Save for Crying and Wretch, angus cerini / doubletap’s latest offering promises to be compelling, energetic and beautiful.

'An expressionistic response to the world in which we live, and the very nature of existence – powerful, nonsensical and beyond our control.' (Publication summary)

'Well-known Melbourne playwright Angus Cerini continues his odyssey into the inner world of the dispossessed. His hallmark poeticism and savagery combine with an extraordinary lightness in this new work.'

Source: Judges' Report, The RE Ross Trust Playwrights' Script Development Awards: Winners 2009 website, www.slv.vic.gov.au/ross (sighted 23/06/2009)