DIRECTOR’S NOTE

Zoë Hollyoak — Director

At its core, Ella Hickson’s brilliant and furious new work is a play about women in theatre. We follow the journey of a young female playwright trying to remain faithful to her authentic voice. As we strip through layers of her life, we explore personal and professional relationships that inhibit or propel her, and her greater relationship to form, desire and creativity.

When I first read this play, I was deeply struck by how relatable it is as a young woman working in the theatre industry. It’s been challenging and exposing to create this work as it uncovers the choices we have and the cost of those choices. The theatre, as we know it, acts as space that allows stories to be amplified. This production questions how we tell stories and who gets to tell them. It also explicitly reminds us that this cultural industry remains firmly rooted under patriarchal capitalism.

I am deeply grateful to all the women that came before me, for their guidance, support and rage, including Ele, Shondelle and Emma, who I had the joy of working with on this production. There is a sadness inside this work, but I have found hope in the students creating it. I am constantly reminded that there is room to be unapologetically authentic and great power in coming together. Hickson says it best: if the centre is moving, what takes its place?