Malthouse acknowledges the unceded lands of the Kulin Nation. We acknowledge their sovereignty and their Songlines. We pay respect to their Elders and their Children. We embrace and celebrate the oldest culture in the world.
Five friends—a gay male couple in their 30s and three female friends in their 50s—have booked a house in Hepburn Springs for several days over New Year’s Eve as part of a tradition. But this year it’s different as one of the men—the glue that keeps the group together—has spent the year battling cancer and his prognosis is unknown.
This play came out of the New Year’s Eve I experienced at the end of 2020. My partner Daniel and I were struggling following the stress of his cancer diagnosis and the major side effects of the drugs he was taking. While things had improved, I still found myself sharing a small apartment with a person I didn’t recognise who seemingly no longer wanted me around. But what were my duties as his carer? If my goal was to make him happy, was leaving the ultimate act of care?
I’m well aware we’re not the first couple to have the spectre of death fundamentally change our relationship, but what I couldn’t seem to work out was whether the new way we saw each other was distorted or pulled into focus. I’d certainly hoped—and felt led to believe—that a crisis like this would pull us together and make us appreciate the time we still had. We would share a new kind of intimacy and all the colours would be brighter before the dark ( Beaches , Steel Magnolias , Terms of Endearment etc.). And at times this is precisely how it felt. But largely it felt more like the disease was an unwelcome third in our relationship, something we had to either acknowledge or deny at every moment while also trying to spare each other the burden of our fears. We became the reverse of ourselves—Daniel developed an incredibly dark sense of humour and I was shocked to find I no longer had one. To laugh at something is to name it and hold power over it and I’d never felt more powerless.
The play also springs from my regular experience with a close group of friends—you can call them my ‘chosen family’ but we’d have a funnier name for it—who frequently find excuses to get out of Melbourne and out of our minds. These women also happen to be the greatest and funniest conversationalists I’ve ever known. We share war stories about our families, our love lives, our career failures, and while on the surface it may appear that we’re just roasting each other, what we’re really doing is allowing ourselves to be vulnerable in a way that maybe men and women can only be when they share a common enemy—the world at large. When we’re together we have carte blanche to be messy, petty, hurt and jealous but the following day, likely while nursing a hangover, we’ll subtly check in with each other and talk more seriously about what’s going on—just another way these women have shown me what real care looks like.
Ultimately, this play is my way of making sure these women are just as special to you as they are to me. With that said, I’d like to thank Paula, Andrea, Annie, The Egg, Daniel and all the actors who generously gave their time and thoughts throughout the play’s development.
ASH FLANDERS / WRITERASH FLANDERS (HE/HIM) WRITER
MATTHEW LUTTON (HE/HIM) DIRECTOR
WIL KING (THEY/THEM) CAST
BELINDA MCCLORY (SHE/HER) CAST
MARCUS MCKENZIE (HE/HIM) CAST
MICHELLE PERERA (SHE/HER) CAST
MARIA THEODORAKIS (SHE/HER) CAST
GIDEON COZENS / ASSOCIATE SOUND SYSTEM DESIGNER
KITAN PETKOVSKI / BESEN PLACEMENT (DIRECTING)
ARTEMIS IOANNIDES / VOICE ARTIST
KHISRAW JONES-SHUKOOR / VOICE ARTIST
EVA SEYMOUR / VOICE ARTIST
KATHERINE TONKIN / VOICE ARTIST
MATILDA WOODROOFE (SHE/HER) SET & COSTUME DESIGNER
PAUL JACKSON (HE/HIM) LIGHTING DESIGNER
CECILY RABEY (SHE/HER) STAGE MANAGER
GEORGIA SEALEY (SHE/HER) ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER
JOE PARADISE LUI (IT/THAT) COMPOSER & SOUND DESIGNER
BOARD
FIONA M c GAUCHIE (CHAIR)
JADA ALBERTS
DEBBIE DADON AM
DR ANNA FOLEY
LINDY HUME AM PHD
ANDREW MYER AM
SUE PRESTNEY
PAMELA RABE
MARY VALENTINE AO
JACOB VARGHESE
ALAN WONG
DANIELLE LEIGH (OBSERVER)
EXECUTIVE
MATTHEW LUTTON
SARAH NEAL
ARTISTIC & PROGRAMMING
ANNIE BOURKE
BERNADETTE FAM
LAURA HALE
LAURA MILKE GARNER
JO REDFEARN
MARLINE ZAIBAK
FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION
NESS HARWOOD
LIZ WHITE
ALLIE STAPLETON
CONNIE STELLA
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
DAVEY SIMMONS
SABRINA ALDAY
KEYANNA BURGHER
LAUREN GALLINA
TAMARAH SCOTT
PUBLICITY
TS PUBLICITY
GRAPHIC DESIGN
HOURS AFTER DEVELOPMENT
ALEX BELLEMORE
PATRICK CRUMMY
EDUCATION
LYALL BROOKS
TICKETING & BOX OFFICE
PRUE SUTHERLAND
FIONA WISEMAN
BOX OFFICE STAFF
PAUL BUCKLEY
PERRI CUMMINGS
BRONYA DOYLE
CASEY GOULD
MELLITA ILICH
JULIA LANDBERG
ISA MUNHOS
TIM WOODS
LIZ WHITE
PRODUCTION
BLAIR HART
BAIRD MCKENNA
DEXTER VARLEY
ZOE RABB
ROB BALLINGALL
MICHAEL CARR
BRENDAN JELLIE
DELIA SPICER
GOFFREDO MAMELI
ELIZABETH WHITTON
LENNON FOWLER
AL BRILL
PRODUCTION STAFF
TAIT ADAMS
ASHLEIGH BASHAM
GABRIEL BETHUNE
NATHAN BURMEISTER
MYLES CAREW
KRIS CHAINEY
EDWIN CHEAH
GIDEON COZENS
EVAN DRILL
JUSTIN GARDHAM
FINNIAN GLEESON
KADIN HAWKER
STEPHEN HAWKER
JODI HOPE
ETHAN HUNTER
LIAM JONES
PATRICK JONES
KHISRAW JONES-SHUKOOR
JACK KENNEDY
MIN KINGHAM
JASON MARKOUTSAS
STJOHN MCKAY
SIDNEY MILLAR
SAM NIX
CHRIS PAYNE
WILLIAM RICHARDS
ASHLEIGH SHEARMAN
NATAYLA SHIELD
KATE TAYLOR
EM VAN DYKE
NATALIE VINCENT
THEO VINEY
JAMES WILKINSON
OUNIE WITHEROW AITKEN
VENUE
DANIELLE GIORDANO
EMMA CORBETT
STEVE HEARNE
FRONT OF HOUSE STAFF
KATHERINE ADES
CAMERON BAJRAKTAREVIC-
HAYWARD
MITCHELL BROTZ
LOUISA CARPINTERI
ISSY COMEGNA
CHIARA GABRIELLI
FIKER GEBREHANA
DANIELLE GODER
ZOE HADLER
CATHERINE HAMILTON
GEORGINA JEFFORD
SOPHIE MCCRAE
HAYLEY NEWMAN
TEXAS NIXON-KAIN
SARAH ONN
ELLIE ROTH
ELLIA RUSSELL
CLAUDE SARMIENTO
LUCY SEALE
ELISABETH SHAW
EMMA SHAW
FLYNN SMEATON
BARNEY SPICER
KAIVU SUVARNA
KENNY WAITE
LACHLAN WATTS
OLIVE WEEKS
HAYLEY WOLTERS
