Finn O'Branagáin

2019: A woman holidays in Malta with her new girlfriend after leaving a 13 year relationship with a man. 

1919: The female writers HD and Bryher escape to the Scillies, keeping their relationship hidden at all costs.

600BC: The famous poet Sappho from Lesbos writes her searing love poems to women.

A braided monologue about the politics of being visibly queer, and what it means to be on an island.

In three words, this work is: intimate, curious, loving.

A one-woman monologue play braiding together autobiographical travel in 2019 after coming out later in life, the travels of writers H.D. and Bryher one hundred years earlier in 1919 (who had to keep their queer relationship hidden at all costs), and speculation of the ancient life of Sappho the famous poet who gave us the word ‘lesbian’ with her women loving women poems. It examines the politics of being visibly gay during their lives and compares them to the complex and varied changing realities of 2019. Woven throughout is the consideration of the different ways that the idea of being on an island plays out in their lives, be it liberating or restrictive, and the concept of travel – for leisure or refuge.

This work is an exploration of sexuality and identity. It is a chronology of personal lived experiences, but also considers the lived experiences of other queer women from the past, both 100 years ago and over 2600 years ago, and academia and society’s changing attitudes about them. It considers the experiences of other women and queer people in the present – as well as an unfolding understanding of what it means to be a queer woman today. It’s a consideration of privileges that are thrown into relief when travelling, as well as unexpected discoveries of homophobia in the places that had previously felt most comfortable in the past. It places homosexuality in relation to different power structures such as psychological care workers, refugee administration, marriage law, historical monuments, and how un/encumbered you are when moving through the streets.

Are you at the WPI Conference Montréal and are here through the featured scripts portal? To read the script, please click here to get in contact and I’ll send it to you directly.

Length: 1 act
Running time (approx.): 60 mins
Cast number: 1
Genre: monologue, documentary (memoir, biography, social and political observations)
Themes: travel, private/public queer relationships, scrutiny, history, social and metaphorical geography, queer love, poetry and literature

Production: unproduced, has had public readings:
- The Seymour Centre, Sydney as part of Siren Theatre Company’s Pride event Playlist in Feb 2020
- Potsdam Universität, Berlin in Jan 2020

Features/publication:
- Women Playwrights International Conference Montréal 2022 Online (Selected out of over 350 submissions)
- Published by West Words 2021

Scaredy Cat comes from a long line of fierce hunters, hired for the biggest jobs, with the meanest rodents. When an urgent call comes in, it’s Scaredy’s turn to do the family proud. Only problem is, she’s terrified of mice.

Trapped in an old basement with three cunning critters, Scaredy is bullied and all alone – or so she thinks. As the antique furniture in the basement comes creakily to life, a whole new world of eccentric characters is revealed, leading Scaredy on a journey she’ll never forget.

Terrapin’s new production for 2022 is a funny, beautiful and fantastic story of friendship across generations. Cute doesn’t mean no courage, and old age doesn’t make you obsolete.

Credits

Writer: Finn O'Branagáin

Director: Sam Routledge

Puppet Maker: Bryony Anderson

Set Designer: Charlotte Lane

Composer: Dylan Sheridan

Construction: Bryony Anderson, Jon Bowling, Paul Colegrave, Gab Paananen, Edith Perrenot, Gabbee Stolp

Perfomers: Lucy McDonald, Bella Young, Noah Casey

Photography: Peter Mathew

2022: Sydney Opera House season Jan 6-22. https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/events/whats-on/Kids-and-Families/2022/scaredy-cat.html

2021: Tasmania schools tour - 14,000+ students across Tasmania saw this show!

About Terrapin: From its island home in Tasmania, Terrapin creates worlds of creative adventure beyond the borders of contemporary puppetry. The company’s in-theatre productions transport children and families to incredible places with narratives of adventure, humour and beauty. Terrapin’s interactive installations use simple technologies in dazzling ways to make audiences of all ages essential creators in transforming public space.

March 2018 - Perth Festival, Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre Western Australia

March 2019 - Perth Festival, Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre Western Australia

August 2022 - London Southbank Centre UK

August 2022 - Edinburgh International Festival, Royal Lyceum Theatre UK

August 2022 - Sydney Opera House

Presented by Black Swan State Theatre Company, Perth International Arts Festival and DADAA

★★★★★ "a movingly sweet, sad, angry and joyful celebration of passion, determination and spirit." ArtsHub

★★★★ "... envelopes the audience, creating a shared joyous experience of the rarest kind in theatre." West Australian

"a sweet, joyful and generous piece of theatre." The Guardian

“… disarming and charming, political and professional, entertaining and educative — and, most of all, moving. Supported by excellence in stagecraft and production personnel, the festival could not have hoped for a better result of their commission.” The Conversation

Awards won:

Best New Work - Performing Arts Western Australia Awards 2019

Best Main Stage Production - Performing Arts Western Australia Awards 2019

You know we belong together,
You and I forever and ever.
No matter where you are,
You're my guiding star …

You Know We Belong Together is a story of love; a theatrical celebration of this incredible force of nature that strikes like lightning into our hearts. Family, friends and lovers, Julia Hales offers a deeply personal account of her own experiences of love as a daughter, actor, dreamer and person with Down syndrome.

Bringing with her the voices and aspirations of a community rarely seen on stage, You Know We Belong Together is an uplifting performance with video, dance and song. As the Studio Underground is transformed into Julia’s own private realm, it becomes a place where dreams could be brought into reality.

 More information:

Verbatim theatre normally takes place some time after the fact of the action. It is often compiled with extensive research and interviews and then pieced together, thread by thread – the writer becoming part detective, part storyteller, part compelling barrister for the subjects. It’s then handed over to a director and actors to make it come alive – a representation of other people, another time – illuminating a case for the audience. Sometimes the subjects can be surprised by how they ‘sound’, their representation folded in amongst other storylines, facts and threads of interest creating a documentary of a self that they might not quite recognise.

Some of the magic of You Know We Belong Together – actually, the magic of Julia Hales - is that I have been able to do all this with her – researching and conversing and piecing it together, with Julia as both subject and performer. Having Julia as the lead artist has meant that at all times she’s in control of the documentation and presentation of her own story. Together with Clare Watson we’ve pressed forward with research lines of enquiry that interested us all, that strengthened Julia’s arguments. Together we’ve poured over our transcribed conversations, piecing together, thread by thread, illuminating a portrait of a remarkable woman, a celebration of a community, a case for the audience towards love and belonging. A documentary of a life still unfolding, dreams being lived, a person that the audience can recognise as someone in control of her own self and own story. Watching Clare and Julia shaping it on stage, seeing it come alive with a room of professional artists with and without Down syndrome. It’s been an honour to work with Clare and Julia in service of amplifying and articulating Julia’s story and passions and introducing audiences to her and the cast of magnificent people in the production and in the Down syndrome community.

Co-creator and Director: Clare Watson

Writer/ Associate Director: Finn O’Branagain

Lead Artist: Julia Hales

Performers: Tina Fielding, Patrick Carter, Joshua Bott, Lauren Marchbank

Set and Costume Designer: Tyler Hill

Lighting Designer: Joe Lui

Composer / Sound Designer: Rachael Dease

Movement Director / ASM: Laura Boynes

Video Designer: Michael Carmody

Dramaturg: Deborah May

Film Maker: Lincoln Mackinnon

Stage Manager: Jessica Rogerson

Producer Manager: Stewart Campbell

Associate Producer DADAA: Simone Flavelle

Producer Perth Festival: Anna Reece

This project has been supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and LOFT, an initiative of The Blue Room Theatre, supported by the State Government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries. 

A Perth Festival Commission.
A Rio Tinto WA Stories Project.

Have a tricky text to send? A reality game show helping people one text message at a time.

It's hard to know what to say sometimes. Is there a message you need to send? Maybe you need to tell your crush you can't stop thinking about them, tell a partner about a little STI you have, reconnect with a sibling you haven't spoken to in years, tell your housemate to stop leaving wet towels on the floor, send condolences to a friend with a death in the family.

If you can't find the words, play Text Roulette and let Finn O'Branagáin draft them for you -- then send, save, delete, or ask for a sign. Sign up to anonymously have your text drafted, or purchase a ticket to see the process unfold from the safety of the audience.

Fun, gently interactive, warm and inclusive, Text Roulette is helping to solve life’s problems one text message at a time.

Watch videos:
https://vimeo.com/textroulette

Read updates about participants:
https://www.facebook.com/sendsavedelete

Listen to an interview and game on RTRFM

Previous seasons:

·      English Theatre Berlin | Expo Festival - 28 April 2019
Photos by Jerun Vahle.

·      Paper Mountain | PEAKS 2019, part of FRINGE WORLD – January 2019
Photos by Natalie Blom for Paper Mountain
and Joe Spina for FRINGEWORLD.com.au

·      The Blue Room Theatre | Winter Nights Festival – June 2018

What is this show like?

The show is lo-fi, fun, community-creating and cheeky. The room often explodes into audience members calling out their suggestions to the participants, revealing personal stories during the games, and reaching out of their seats to show their support and care to each other.

It is in turn frivolous, ridiculous and serious, dealing with people’s problems ranging from ‘I have a crush that I don’t know how to process,’ to ‘I need to repair my relationship with my father before he dies.’ It’s like the loving and sassy advice you get from chatting with friends, it’s like the excitement and secret-sharing, dare-doing of your childhood sleepovers, it’s the realisation that many people have the same problems you do with articulating your feelings, or with shitty lovers, or with telling hard truths to people you care about.

The audience is encouraged to speak up during the whole show, giving their opinions on the draft text, or the situation, and to also speak up during the games, to share their stories and experiences. The audience is also encouraged to text during the show – as part of some of the games to either strangers or friends or to me who will read them out during the show.

A sense of community and camaraderie is cultivated, with the audience really getting behind the participants and anyone in the audience who speaks up.
There are many examples of participants getting heart warming responses from people they text during the show, and of connections forming for audience members based on texts they sent as part of the show.

At the start of each show there is a ‘previously on Text Roulette’ section, where some stories are recapped, and the Text Roulette Facebook page is updated when there has been developments in the participants stories.

I often have past audience members coming up to me in the street after shows, with them wanting to know what happened to a particular favourite, or to share their own text-related anecdote. They often say that being in or seeing the show inspired them to reach out to other people in their lives, or that they have never felt so ‘connected or there together’ with an audience full of strangers.

It’s a real privilege to make this show and to be met with so many open and warm-hearted participants and audience members.

The show aims to bring people together, to help people reconsider how they communicate, and to help participants and audience members break through personal communication barriers they are experiencing. I’m always surprised and touched by how open and caring and supportive each audience is to the participants, to me, and to each other when they share their own stories.

I’m interested in ideas around advice, trust, speechlessness, and freezing in the face of revealing your true feelings. I’m interested in why when we have these computers in our pockets that let us communicate with anyone in the world at any time at the speed of an internet connection, why it’s still so hard to say what we need to sometimes. I’m sure we’ve all hovered over the reply button before, re-written something a bunch of times, or agonized over how many xs are too many xs at the end. It can be hard to read or communicate subtext and tone in text messages!

This show is supposed to be fun, but it’s also trying to make life a bit better – to bring us all a bit closer. I can’t save the whole world, but I can make one hard conversation a bit better for one person at a time.

Credits:

Creator and Performer: Finn O'Branagáin
Producer and Operator:        Natalie Di Risio (Perth season)
Operator Berlin season: Bronwyn Miller
Prop design: Clare Testoni
Composer: Tom Hogan
Sound Design: Nathan Jamieson
Dramaturg: Alexa Taylor
Graphic Design: Scott McArdle
Poster Photographer: David Cox

Thank you: Joe Lui, Michelle Aitken, Bronwyn Miller, Pia Fruin, Roger Miller, Ursula Martinez, Natalie Di Risio, Alexa Taylor, Harriet Roberts, Steven Finch, Hannan Jones

Sign up to participate: tinyurl.com/textroulette

Quotes:

"Your words worked! We are going on a date next week. Thank you. I never could have had the courage to ask without you, I know I would have just let this spark go." – Participant

“This was magical.”

“So lovely and wholesome and sweet.”

“AWESOME! I wish I could have come every night.”

- Audience members.

The world's oldest recorded spider died in WA's wheatbelt in early 2018 from a wasp sting. She was 43 years old. News of her travelled all over the world and was featured in The Washington Post, The Smithsonian, National Geographic, CNN and TIME. This is the story of her life, and last few days. A one-woman show from the point of view of the spider, starring Andrea Gibbs (8 Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography) and written by Finn O'Branagáin.

Proud recipient of the FRINGE WORLD Inspiring Australia STEM-Arts Grant.

A work-in-progress showing was held in Jan 2019 at Paper Mountain.

All photos by Leanda Mason

I am the Gorgon

"I am Medusa.
I am she who turns men to stone.
I am she who was beheaded.
She who has gone unheeded, unheard, unwept
I am the ignored, the unseen, the forgotten."

Each night our sisterhood of priestesses will summon the Goddess Medusa to life. A thundering ritual of dancing will take place in the sweaty nightclub to awaken Medusa, our protector and fighter.

We will swarm amongst you in our temple, clambering onto our podiums to be seen and heard through the throbbing beat. You can partake in the ritual, or bear respectful witness to our power. The choice is yours.

Sacrifice your inhibitions and join us.

More information:

A text-based dance party/religious ritual performance project retelling the mis-told and misunderstood myth of Medusa. In this version, a fierce-as-f*ck ensemble perform a ritual to awaken the goddess, and give her back her head.

 The text is a modern reinterpretation of the story of Medusa, told with modern language, settings and references. Set in a nightclub/temple, the ensemble cast create scenes from a modern life to retell the ancient (and largely mistold) story of the rape, banishment and beheading of Medusa, the gorgon woman who could turn people to stone. Delving into history, pop culture, mythology, religion, psychology, sociology and symbolism to look at the conversations raised by the content. The work tries to imagine a different ending for Medusa, and for the women who will leave the theatre.

Medusa becomes a kind of feminist totem - and is being summoned to protect and fight for the women calling her up. The work is primarily a display of solidarity, and simultaneously a celebration, a party, and a warning to oppressors. The audience can either be swept into and participate in the ritual or bear witness. 

The ultimate goal of the work is to create a real-world empowering and feminist cult of Medusa. Through repeated prayers, symbols and easily-replicated participatory rituals, and ongoing marketing and publications, we hope that the ideas of the work permeate the ‘real’ world and create change. 

Medusa speaks to the intersection of age and femininity, and the worship of the young and youthful in this age of #kween-dom. It is about the experience of living in a female body. It’s about what it is like when a woman’s body goes from being ‘desirable’ to ‘repulsive’, when we are conditioned and socialised to be seen only to have value within our physicality. 

It’s about the social phenomenon that means women over a certain age become invisible - actually invisible to people walking past them.

It’s about the dangers of being a woman living on the street - the highest and growing demographic of people who are homeless is women over 50.

It speaks to the way we are desensitised to yet titillated by women being murdered and bodies dissected on screen - in films and on the news.

The idea that society generally treats women who are victims of sexual assault the same way we treat women who are homeless, and this is also the Medusa effect - that we don’t want to look at them, that they become repulsive to us, that our hearts turn to stone in front of them, and we secretly think that they must have done something to deserve it, or have put themselves in a situation that made it possible. How women can also be instrumental in the harm and oppression of other women.

In a world where a mainstream discourse includes #metoo and #timesup is rightfully exposing past and continuing disheartening and hopeless-feeling wrongdoings, Medusa offers a sense of an intersectional possibility of empowerment.

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés writes “Once women remember the origin of their rage, they feel they may never stop grinding their teeth. Ironically, we also feel very anxious to disperse our rage, for it feels distressing and noxious. […] But repressing it will not work. It is like trying to put fire into a burlap bag. […] Allowing oneself to be taught by ones rage, thereby transforming it, disperses it [...] Untransformed rage can become a constant mantra about how oppressed, hurt and tortured we were. […] It is psychically sound for them to use this anger about injustice to invent ways to elicit useful change. It is not psychologically sound for them to neutralise their anger so they will not feel, so they will therefore not press for evolution and change. As with personal rage, collective rage is also a teacher. Women can consult with it, question it in solitude and with others, and act upon their conclusions. There is a difference between carrying around old ingrown rage and stirring it with a new stick to see what constructive uses can come of it. Collective rage is well utilised as motivation to seek out or offer support, to conceive of ways to impel groups or individuals into dialogue, or to demand accountability, progress, improvements.” (‘Women Who Run With the Wolves’, Estés, 1992)

In an atmosphere of rage we are giving Medusa back her head and her power. We are advocating for solidarity and healing.

Script availability:
Casting Notes: This work is for an ensemble of physical performers of various ages. I am also interested in an entirely female cohort. There are central roles for older women. I encourage anyone casting this production to consider performers from diverse ethnic or cultural backgrounds, sexualities and disabilities. The central roles of Medusa especially should be considered for women+ of colour. 
Style: Ritualistic, Non-traditional theatre based in mythology
Length: 60 minutes
Cast: Cast size can vary from 5-12 women and 0-5 men.
Cast age: 18+
Audience age: adult
Publisher: Australian Plays Transform

View or buy script

Seasons
Developed as part of the Black Swan State Theatre Company’s Emerging Writers Group with facilitation and dramaturgy from Jeffrey Jay Fowler

Premiere season presented by Renegade Productions x Bow & Dagger at The Blue Room Theatre 16 Oct – 3 Nov 2018.

Producer: Natalie Di Risio
Writer: Finn O’Branagáin
Director + Sound Designer: Joe Hooligan Lui
Ensemble Performers: Michelle Aitken, Mani Mae Gomez, Jacinta Larcombe, Moana Lutton, Sandy McKendrick, Jess Moyle and Andrew Sutherland.
Lighting Designer: Kristie Smith
Video Designer: Clare Testoni
Set + Costume Designer: Cherish Marrington
Publicity: Scott McArdle

preview video: click here.

"It's like you've entered the greatest nightclub you've ever been to" - OUTinPerth
"It eschews the rules of the patriarchy. It is blunt, bold and wholly unironic" - Seesaw Magazine

"There was something so powerful about being in that space that I can’t help but want everyone to see it” - The Murdoch Review

"It is a ferocious wakeup call, against an unreasonable, patriarchal world...this play is not simply a wonderful piece of entertainment, but the magnificent, dedicated cast powerfully presents it" - Independent Theatre Association

Michael Tsolakis has lead a remarkable life 96 years long. From his early days growing up on the island of Kastellorizo in Greece, through a new life forged in Perth after migrating to Western Australia, his story touches on major social and political forces of the last century. Finn O’Branagain gives a theatrical and multi-dimensional treatment to Michael’s journey.

Commissioned by The Centre for Stories and The Blue Room Theatre. A reading with Thomas Papathanassiou performing and Alexa Taylor was dramaturg and director.

Playwrights were matched with story tellers from the Centre for Stories, which is an amazing and warm organisation in Perth. I've wrote about Michael Tsolakis, a who has an almost magical object that he has kept his whole life. It's a story about language, luck, empathy and the funny things that keep popping up as themes in a long, long life. I feel so honoured to have listened to his stories and weave them together.

Photo of Michael and Lola Tsolakis, provided by the family.

The Epic

by Ten Tonne Sparrow

Dash back to the beginning as we retell and unpick myths, epic texts and really good stories from around the globe.

Many of these stories have lost relevance, interest, or have faded away over time – our goal is to drag them into the modern world, peel them to pieces and make them present again. Our world may be different, and maybe now we think we’re too modern, bitter or cynical for these stories. But anyone could be a hero if you tell it right. Even two poets.

From the cradle of civilisation to the one about the wooden horse, with heroes ranging from Gilgamesh to Vin Diesel, The Epic lovingly takes the stories you think you know and asks them to tell us another.

See more on the Ten Tonne Sparrow website.

You can also buy the soundtrack.

Listen to an interview on RTRFM.

PERFORMANCES

The Blue Room Theatre, Perth WA [June 2015]

Bondi Feast, Sydney, NSW [July 2015]

PICA for Summer Nights, Perth WA [Jan 2016]

2017/2018 TAS, QLD, NSW, SA Tours managed by ArtsOnTour

TEAM
Writers & Performers | Finn O'Branagáin & Scott Sandwich/Tom Hogan
Lighting & Associate Director | Joe Lui
Music | Tom Hogan
Design | Desmond Tan

REVIEWS
“The Epic is easily one of the most enjoyable shows I’ve seen this year; it’s charming, it’s educational and it’s joyously irreverent. The passion which these two performers have, for storytelling and the telling of those stories in particular is palpable, and their enjoyment in the retelling is infectious.”
– The AU Review

“The Epic is epic not only in the scope within each story, not only in the infectious enthusiasm brought to the stage by each performer, but also in the depth and breadth of the knowledge about how these tales fit into human and cultural experiences.”
– Australian Stage

“A pole-to-pole expedition in search of the world’s elemental epic stories, and an entertaining and illuminating journey it is.”
– The West Australian

Accessible, funny, and awkwardly self-aware, Scott and Finn not only re-tell some of the most influential and out-there stories ever recorded, they also reflect on how stories are shaped by the teller and how, in turn, the world is shaped by stories… Finn and Scott approach their material with equal parts reverence and irreverence, in precisely the places it’s needed. There is just enough levity, just enough grandeur, and too much going on to be bored for even a moment. If you get the chance to see this show sometime, do it. The Epic will make any hour of your life seem bigger on the inside. 5/5 stars
– The Brag

“O’Branagáin and Sandwich are retelling a few of the most epic epics of all time from around the world. They deconstruct myths from just about every continent in the space of about an hour, and do it in a way that’s full of spark and barb, irreverence and passion.”
– X-Press Magazine

“Even if you are totally over the word epic, get back to its true origin with Finn and Scott – they’ll literally remind you how great an epic can be.”
– X-Press Magazine

“A fantastic collection of stories from around the world, delivered by two storytellers passionate about epic tales and keen and bright-eyed in their enthusiastic sharing of various characters and narratives.”
– Australian Stage

“A thought-provoking around-the-world journey of cultural identity. O’Branagáin and Sandwich were amazing. They captured the attention of the entire room with just their words and their passion.”
– Colosoul

SELKIE / noun / A creature of Gaelic mythology that exists as a seal in water, and can shed their sealskin to assume human form on land.

Night. A house by the sea. A woman stands, naked, wet, panicking, some kind of secretion all over her. A young man tries to calm her down, hand her a towel. He’s gentle and respectful. She is a Selkie who’s lost her seal skin and is unable to return to the sea without it.

Séan promises to help her look for it. Rónnad ends up staying. A predator is slowly domesticated. They fall in love, but she is a little odd, howling at weddings, laughing at funerals - the townspeople are suspicious of her, and while he genuinely loves her, her oddness starts to grate on him. She still can’t find her seal skin. She is torn - stay and look for it, with the only human who understands her but is increasingly hostile, or take the risk of leaving and never returning to the sea. With just the two of them on stage in a small seaside house, their story is claustrophobic and tense.

As time passes, their relationship coils tighter; a net closing in on them. At their most comfortable, the skin is discovered - he has been hiding it the whole time. The predator instincts are reawakened. The myth is broken. An act of extreme violence. She takes the skin. She leaves and doesn’t look back.

Selkie is a provocative work exploring this mythological other who is lost in a relationship where she is both owned and prized, her identity repressed in an attempt at assimilation.

Selkie takes you for a swim in a whirlpool of love, cultural exploitation, and domestic oppression.

Recommended for ages 15+

Photos by Cameron Etchells, of the premiere season.

More information:

Stories of Selkies are familiar to many of us. When I first read the myth as a child, I did so in the way it is when you fall in love – seeing only the magic. The idea of a strange woman from the ocean living amongst fishermen seemed so romantic. But when I re-read it, with an adult, critical, feminist lens, I saw more in it – the dark underbelly of the ‘real’ story. This captured faerie-creature now became a metaphor for keeping foreign, exoticised women captive as wives, or for the domestic oppression that keeps people trapped in toxic relationships. I was drawn to write this version of the selkie story because it is true. Statistics confirm (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012) that by their current or former partner:

·        Nearly one Australian woman is killed each week.

·        One in four Australian women have experienced emotional abuse.

·        One in six have experienced physical or sexual violence.

Most of these women will never contact police about it. The World Health Organisation describes the levels of violence experienced by the world’s women as ‘a global public health problem of epidemic proportions, requiring urgent action’. This supposed myth is a reality for many people - and chances are, for you or someone you know. In myth or reality, there is always the hope that they too will find their seal skin, their courage, their hope, and be able to leave.

The script also deals with themes of cultural exploitation, domestic oppression, and the ‘civilising’ influence of an oppressor genuinely in love with the subject of their desire. A disconcerting insight into how we can unknowingly repress, exploit and manipulate those we genuinely care for, Selkie explores the complexity of untangling cultural relationships in a post-colonial landscape through the lens of a simple, poignant love story. I have received some extremely heartfelt responses from audience members about their personal experiences with this topic – including a woman who felt able to leave her partner after seeing the show, many women who had left relationships like this, and a few men who said they could recognise patterns of behaviour in themselves from the show, that they now feel is problematic and wish to change.

The exploration of cultural assimilation and civilisation will resonate with anyone who has felt like an outsider within the place they live.

The themes of ownership and constriction of intimate partners, loss of culture, the dehumanisation and attempted assimilation of ‘the other’ are themes that are important, urgent talking points in the news and the socially conscious conversation today.

Selkie is a dark, sometimes funny, feminist play about the tension between safety and freedom; between needing to be authentic and wanting to be safe. That tension is at the heart of the social and political zeitgeist. It intersects issues of culture, race and gender, making Selkie a pertinent work.

This work encourages audiences to think about diversity and the ‘othering’ effect that the dominant culture can have. It will feel like familiar territory to anyone who has been made to feel trapped or different, and deals with some of the less examined aspects of the post-colonial relationship.

Recommended for ages 15+

Form/Style: magic realism, drama, dangerous romance
Length in minutes: 50
Cast: 2 total
Roles: 1 female, 1 male (non-binary and trans friendly)
Themes: gender, culturally and linguistically diverse, women
Cast age groups: 18+
Audience age: adult
Publisher: Australian Script Centre

View and buy the script 

Production history and details:

Written in 2014 with mentorship from award winning director Adam Mitchell through the 4x4 Australian Theatre for Young People mentorship program in Perth, Australia.

Development season at Hayman Theatre, Perth, Australia. By Curtin University students.

18-25 October 2015

Director: Sean Guastavino
Featuring: Jessica Nyanda Moyle and Tristan McInnes
Stage Manager: Kane Parker
Set design: Jess Fowles
Lighting design: Mai Han
Costume design: Shan Gabriel
Sound design: Alex Yell and Shanae Tuxford

Premiere season with Renegade Productions at The Blue Room Theatre 12 - 30 April 2016, Perth Australia.

Renegade Productions and The Blue Room Theatre

Director: Joe Lui
Set & Costume Design: Cherish Marrington
Choreographer: Laura Boynes
Sound & Lighting Design: Joe Lui
Producer: Harriet Roberts
Stage Manager Meabh Walton
Performed by Paul Grabovac, Ella Hetherington, Kynan Hughes and Yilin Kong (please note the script calls for 2 performers, this production made use of doubling the actors with dancers.) 

Download reviews here.

Production video available on request.

Interview with director Joe Lui.

Second season at the Women in Theatre and Screen’s inaugural Festival Fatale at the Eternity Playhouse in Sydney, Australia. 29 - 30 October 2016

Production by Golden Jam productions.
Co-produced by Nicola James and Amy Morcom
Directed by Nicola James
Lighting design by Daniel Barber
Sound Design by Danielle O'Keef
Animation by Tara J E Brown
Performed by Sarah de Possesse and Jordan Gallaway

This event was the only one in the festival to sell out.

The true story of a woman who learned to song-write her way through anxiety.

Georgina didn’t know what was happening to her when she started hitting emotional lows at an alarming rate, with her thoughts spinning round in a figure eight. It wasn’t until she dusted off an old electric keyboard and started playing that she found some relief.

Funny, uplifting, and for the two million Australians who experience anxiety, Interrupting a Crisis is undeniably relatable.

Told with vulnerability and original music, Georgina invites you into the chaos and confusion of an anxious mind, and the thump of the heart that keeps the beat. It’s about taking hold of fears, saying them out loud, and making them rhyme until they are no longer terrifying. It’s about speaking out when you need help, with or without musical backing.

This is not the story of a crisis but the interruption of one.

Performance History: 

Don Russell Performing Arts Centre 2019 - WEEKLY AWARD WINNER Perth FRINGE WORLD

Subiaco Arts Festival 2018

The Blue Room Theatre 2017

Bondi Feast 2017

CREDITS:
Writer & Performer: Georgina Cramond
Director & Dramaturg: Finn O’Branagáin
Producer: Georgia King
Storytelling Mentor: Andrea Gibbs
Designer: Clare Testoni
Lighting Designer: Rhiannon Petersen
Sound Designer: George Ashforth
Stage Manager: Rachael Woodward
Publicist: Scott McArdle

Finn’s new Tamagotchi is acting a bit weird. The tentacled hatchling needs constant care and attention, and it just keeps whispering “That is not dead which can eternal lie” over and over again. Scott’s having fever dreams about rising sea levels, and cult members keep turning up at the front door. Is it time? Is THIS climate change? Or was Nostradamus wrong again?

The real signposts of inevitable doom are already here, so Finn and Scott connect the dots between ancient myth, up-to-the-minute science, and the dankest memes. Together they present a comprehensive pre-apocalyptic guide to the end of the world.

From the minds behind The Epic comes a new factual spectacular about the end of humanity, and our relationship with the world around us. 

Come on in, the water is warm. And it’s getting warmer.

"Immense, intense and filled with brilliance, this show is a must-see.  ★ ★ ★ ★ ½" - OutInPerth

"Incredibly informative, laughable and existential, yet scarily… all so relevant. Do not miss this production, it could just save us from a doomsday. ★ ★ ★ ★ ½" - The Theatre Diary

"It was going to be a pretty weird play... Was I right? Eh … sort of. Was it good, though? Abso-fucking-lutely. ★ ★ ★ ★" - Dircksey
 

Performers | Paul Grabovac, Izzy McDonald
Writers | Finn O’Branagáin, Tom Hogan
Director & Lighting Design | Joe Lui
Producer | Finn O’Branagáin
Composer | Tom Hogan
Designer | Sara Chirichilli
Stage Manager | Sean Guastavino
Publicist | Scott McArdle
Hero Image | Chloe Flockart

20 June - 8 July, 2017
The Blue Room Theatre, Perth

Listen to an interview with Finn on Artbeat, RTRFM.

Tamagotchi Reset & Other Doomsdays was developed with support from JUTE Theatre Company and Bundanon Trust.

Pink Fireworks is a monologue for a female actor aged 15 - 19. It explores that difficult time when you can't be sure if it's just friendship, or something more. 

A short, sharp, evocative collection of monologues written by some of Australias leading young and established playwrights. Each piece is crafted for an actor aged between 16 and 20. Subtle, uplifting, poetic and funny, these pieces are as exciting and diverse as the young actors that perform them.

Part of the Voices Project

1st Published and available for purchase: in the Voices Project, Currency Press, Australia (2012)

Teachers Resources available here.