Strangers in Between
Encyclopedia
Strangers in Between is a two-act Australian play by Tommy Murphy. It won the $15,000 2006 NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Best Play. It was first staged at Sydney's Griffin Theatre Company
in February 2005, where it broke box office records.
It is published by Currency Press
with Murphy's stage adaptation of Timothy Conigrave
's Holding the Man
.
The Sydney Morning Herald called it "bitter and sweet and replete with raw emotion". The Sun Herald found it "irresistibly heart-warming" while the Sunday Telegraph had a "charming and often exhilarating experience". SX News called it "the best new Australian play since Michael Gow
's Away
".
17 February - 12 March 2005
Director: David Berthold
Designer: Alice Babidge
Lighting: Anthony Pearson
Shane - Sam Dunn
Peter - Anthony Phelan
Will/Ben - Brett Stiller
in Belrose Sydney and Riverside Theatre Parramatta
(see links).
Queanbeyan, The Q - Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, 6-7 May
Coffs Harbour, Jetty Theatre, 9-10 May
Sydney, Glen Street Theatre, Belrose, 13-24 May
Sydney, Riverside Theatres, Parramatta, 27-31 May
Bendigo, Capital Theatre, 3 June
Ballarat, Her Majesty's Theatre, 5 June
Launceston
, Theatre North, 10-11 June
Hobart
, Theatre Royal
, 13-14 June
Judges citation, NSW Premier's Literary Award:
Griffin Theatre Company
Griffin Theatre Company is an Australian theatre specialising in new writing. It is the resident theatre company at the SBW Stables Theatre in Kings Cross, Sydney, Australia...
in February 2005, where it broke box office records.
It is published by Currency Press
Currency Press
Currency Press is Australia's only specialist performing arts publisher and its oldest independent publisher still active. Their list includes plays and screenplays, professional handbooks, biographies, cultural histories, critical studies and reference works....
with Murphy's stage adaptation of Timothy Conigrave
Timothy Conigrave
Tim Conigrave was an Australian actor, writer, and activist. He was born in Melbourne, and after attending the Jesuit Xavier College and Monash University he moved to Sydney to study at the National Institute of Dramatic Art , from which he graduated in 1984...
's Holding the Man
Holding the Man
Holding the Man is the best-selling memoir by the Australian writer, actor, and activist Timothy Conigrave. It was adapted for the stage by Tommy Murphy in 2006, and has become one of the most successful Australian stage productions in recent years.Holding the Man was published in February 1995 by...
.
Synopsis
‘Strangers in Between’ explores brotherhood. Shane flees his family in regional Goulburn and finds himself in Sydney's Kings Cross. He attempts to build a surrogate family in the city. He confuses the two families. The city lover he worships is doubled and morphed with the brother he fears. Peter, an older man who is dealing with the imminent death of his elderly mother, is himself rendered maternal by the needs of runaway Shane.The Sydney Morning Herald called it "bitter and sweet and replete with raw emotion". The Sun Herald found it "irresistibly heart-warming" while the Sunday Telegraph had a "charming and often exhilarating experience". SX News called it "the best new Australian play since Michael Gow
Michael Gow
Michael Gow is an Australian playwright and director most famed for his 1986 work Away.As a student at Sydney University, Gow acted and directed with the Dramatic Society from 1973-1976. After graduation, Gow went on to act with Nimrod, Thalia and Sydney theatre companies.He has been the Artist...
's Away
Away
Away is a play written by the Australian playwright Michael Gow. First performed by the Griffin Theatre Company in 1986, it tells the story of three internally-conflicted families holidaying on the coast for Christmas, 1968...
".
Details of Premiere Production
Griffin Theatre Company at the SBW Stables Theatre, Sydney, Australia.17 February - 12 March 2005
Director: David Berthold
David Berthold
David Berthold is a leading Australian theatre director. He has directed for most of Australia's major theatre companies, as well as internationally. Since November 2008, he has been Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer of La Boite Theatre Company...
Designer: Alice Babidge
Lighting: Anthony Pearson
Shane - Sam Dunn
Peter - Anthony Phelan
Will/Ben - Brett Stiller
Tour
Griffin Theatre Company's original production was to tour Australia in 2008. It's schedule was to play May-June. Brett Stiller's roles are to be played by Anthony Gee. The tour is managed by Arts on Tour and includes Glen Street TheatreGlen Street Theatre
Glen Street Theatre is a 400 seat proscenium arch auditorium located in the Forest Community Centre at the corner of Glen Street and Blackbutts Road in Belrose. It was opened on 6 July 1985 by Warringah Shire President Darren Jones, and it now has a reputation as one of the most successful regional...
in Belrose Sydney and Riverside Theatre Parramatta
Riverside Theatre Parramatta
Riverside Theatres is a multi venue performing arts centre located in the CBD of Parramatta in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.Regular companies and productions that perform there include:*The Premier State Ballet...
(see links).
Queanbeyan, The Q - Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, 6-7 May
Coffs Harbour, Jetty Theatre, 9-10 May
Sydney, Glen Street Theatre, Belrose, 13-24 May
Sydney, Riverside Theatres, Parramatta, 27-31 May
Bendigo, Capital Theatre, 3 June
Ballarat, Her Majesty's Theatre, 5 June
Launceston
Launceston, Tasmania
Launceston is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia at the junction of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania after the state capital Hobart...
, Theatre North, 10-11 June
Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
, Theatre Royal
Theatre Royal, Hobart
The Theatre Royal is situated in central Hobart, Tasmania. It stages many events including international ballet, opera, drama and musicals. It was constructed between 1834-1837 and is the oldest continually operating theatre in Australia....
, 13-14 June
Awards
- Winner, $15,000 2006 NSW Premier's Literary Award for Best Play
- Nomination, Best New Australian Work, 2006 Sydney Theatre Awards
- Nomination, 2006 Australian Writers' Guild AwardAWGIE AwardsThe AWGIE Awards is an annual awards ceremony conducted by the Australian Writers' Guild, for excellence in screen, television, stage and radio writing. The awards began in 1967....
(AWGIE) for Best Play
Judges citation, NSW Premier's Literary Award:
Sixteen year old Shane flees small-town NSW for Kings Cross. He's running from a lot of things: a violent family, small town homophobia, and his own realisation he's gay. But the Cross, he finds, is a lonely and fearful place. He befriends Will, who briefly becomes a lover, and Peter, an older man. Together they form an unlikely new family for Shane, and help him enter his new life.
After we leave the care of parents and family come the ‘strangers in between'. Tommy Murphy has written a funny, tender, achingly well-observed play about three strangers, exploring in deft, spare style what belonging is and how we make sense of who we are through our often fraught relations with others.
Constantly surprising, with an inventive use of vernacular, Murphy has created three very real people in Will, the alternative to Shane's violent, damaged brother Ben, and Peter, the possible new father. Dangerous, seamlessly crafted this is a beautiful work and a hopeful antidote to the climate of fear in which we live.