Skip to main content

Article: Big Scary Animal on Stage! - Queensland Theatre Door 3 Program

A blistering legal drama that exposes our insatiable appetite for high profile assault case leads Queensland Theatre’s 2024 DOOR 3 program.

 

The Norman Mailer Anecdote, written by local BAFTA and EMMY award-winning screenwriter, Anthony Mullins, is set amongst Brisbane’s upper middle class and spins on questions of reimagined realities and the lies we convince ourselves are true.

 

Helen is poised to finally make equity partner at her law firm — that is, until her husband Marshall, a career novelist, drops a bombshell. He has been accused of an historical sexual assault. Over one night of heavy drinking, they will claw at one another, love hard and hate hard, as they attempt to make sense of their uncertain future.

 

The Norman Mailer Anecdote is directed by Julian Curtis – returning from Hollywood for his stage directorial debut. Julian was a lead in the EMMY nominated cast of Are You Afraid of the Dark - Outstanding Children’s Series (2024) and nominated at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards.

 

The cast includes well known Brisbane actors Christopher Somers (Elvis, The Water Diviner, The Bureau of Magical Things and Sweet Tooth) and Zoe Houghton (Upright, Joe v Carole, Wanted) and fresh NIDA graduate Hattie Clegg Robinson making her professional stage debut.

 

Anthony Mullins was the award-winning writer behind Safe Harbor (SBS) and Paramount +’s Five Bedrooms. The Norman Mailer Anecdote will be his stage debut. The play is produced by local company Big Scary Animal and supported by well-known local arts identity, Philip Bacon.

 

It opens at the Diane Cilento Studio at Queensland Theatre TODAY! Performances start at 6pm Wednesday to Saturday. Tickets available from: https://queenslandtheatre.com.au/plays/the-norman-mailer-anecdote

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Article: 37 // Queensland Theatre

Queensland Theatre's newest productions is stunning audiences with its powerhouse story full of all things footy, bringing community spirit, thrilling energy and intense physicality to the stage in 37, playing at the Bille Brown Theatre until 4 May. Penned by twice-named Tasmanian Aboriginal Artist of the Year, Nathan Maynard, and directed by renowned Australian director and proud Noongar man, Isaac Drandic, the co-production with Melbourne Theatre Company brings together an ensemble of 10 men to portray a local footy team’s struggle from the bottom of the ladder. Named after the immortalised number Adam Goodes wore on his AFL jersey and set within the era of his famous war-cry, 37 follows the fictional Cutting Cove Currawongs in their fight for premiership glory, which playwright Nathan Maynard described as a story many can relate to. “I won’t go into the themes I touch on in the work because that’s why I wrote the play, for both the audience and I t...

Review: Medea - Queensland Theatre

Written by Grace Wilson From little things, big things grow. It’s a saying that is so Australian and so rooted in our culture. It inspires and it gives hope. Everyone knows of this saying and the song attached to it, but never have we experienced a situation where this saying comes to mind. That is until  Queensland Theatre’s production of Medea by Anne-Louise Sarks and Kate Mulvaney, directed by Daniel Evans. This adaptation of this famous Greek tragedy focuses on the perspective of the two sons of Jason and Medea. In the original myth, we see little to no actual story from these two young boys - so to see an adaptation from a frankly inaccessible storyline in the traditional drama was a bold and incredibly smart choice. To truly appreciate the way the playwrights took this traditional myth and flipped it on its head, a knowledge of the actual myth was required because the subtleties of references could easily be missed. The play ranged from blatant acknowledgments of the traditio...

Review: Scenes From a Yellow Perril - The Reaction Theory & Queensland Theatre Door 3

Written by Grace Wilson The best kind of theatre is theatre that makes people question, reflect and consider how uncomfortable questions encourage people to act and change. There are not many theatre pieces out there that can make an audience consider whether to laugh or cringe, smile or grimace. However, The Reaction Theory’s ‘Scenes From a Yellow Peril’, as a part of Queensland Theatre’s Door 3 program, masterfully manipulates the uncomfortable with the comedic, the angry with the heartfelt, and asks the audience if uncomfortable questions are worth the discoveries that come with them. ‘Scenes From A Yellow Peril’ by Chinese-New Zealand writer and poet, Nathan Joe, can truly be described as poetry on stage, a turbulent experience of communication and heightened emotions. The audience is exposed to complexities and challenges of BIPOC communities across the world in a way that does not fit the traditional theatre mould. There is no way to predict what Joe writes next; each scene chops...