The 2000 Collection

1946 - a large country town - the dedication of the Town Square to a dead hero, Harold, is followed by an evening supper and the gathering of survivors of the war. Coral's home, where the gathering is held, becomes a place of... more

A snappy, slightly twisted version of the old tale. Written for outdoor performance but highly adaptable. Funny, fast moving with original music and engaging characters. more

Two British migrant brothers in search of easy money find themselves in an outback mining town. With the arrival of a boxing tent comes the opportunity for the rapid increase of the brothers meagre savings through a prize fight and a... more

Bethany is set in 1830 in Van Diemen's land (Tasmania). It is the story of a young woman transported from England for a menial crime and now in the service of exploitative landowners in the new colony. The play looks at the way... more

'Boz & Co' traces the attempt by James Boswell, the eighteenth-century biographer of Dr Johnson, to settle on a single, cohesive identity. The play explores his intimacy with three people: Zaide, the lively, unconventional... more

This five scene play concerns the interactions of patients in a public cardiology ward. It looks at the frustrations, conversations and camaraderie which is built up between people over an extremely short period of time in which they... more

In 1955, following the death of her husband, young Aboriginal woman Maree Turner reluctantly returns to an Aboriginal mission in the small town of Buckley's Creek. When she meets and marries John Hodgson, a white man, thus breaking... more

Browbeaten 9 year old Tammy Vamvoukakis lives in Marrickville, eats Mars Bars, is in love with Lionel Ritchie and wants to be just like her gently provocative next-door neighbour, Soulla. Life is good! - Or it would be if it wasn't... more

Scenes from a war-ravaged town are held in stark contrast with the songs and storytelling of a raven and a soldier. 'Cloak of Feathers' is about war, silenced women and the possibility of new beginnings. The action takes place in an... more

Isabella is in a waiting room. She has been dragged to the dentist to undergo the pre-marital extraction of all her teeth. Her Mother Figures, the Dental Nurse and Daphne (a toothless bride-to-be), unite to assure Isabella of the... more

Pearl and Hannah are sisters torn apart by the invasion of Poland in 1939. Now elderly and living together, the sisters are torn internally as they play the new cards life has dealt them. Pearl has survived three husbands; can she... more

One woman monologue of fifty-five year old woman, Betty, who is telling of her love of colour; her ups and downs in life with husband Jack and children Leanne and Brian and her ability to survive life's pitfalls. This is full of... more

A school girl wanders the neighbourhood planning her suicide, watched by an ambitious young woman being fitted out for her wedding dress, and her political role. Mrs Ma folds letters on behalf of Chinese dissidents, while a... more

Jackie has inherited the baked bean factory founded by her father, Jack, of Beanstalk fame. The factory has hit hard times, and Jackie gets involved in various adventures in her own land and in the land of the giant, while trying to... more

Jumping Through Hoops won the 1997 St Martins Youth Arts Centre "Be Your Best" Young Playwrights Competition. The play is a comedy/cabaret about youth unemployment and job hunting. It uses music and satire to explore the difficulties... more

One man, one act play, written as a sequel to Dream Kitchen. It is about Brian; a thirty-four year old working-class boy who is socially isolated and very sensitive to issues such as table top dancing. He is both funny and tragic... more

Adapted by Alan Becher from the novel by Fontini Epanomitis, The Mule's Foal concerns three families throughout 100 years of Greek family life. In the village Theodosios abandons his wife and gorilla child, then spends a lifetime... more

Co-written with John Bolton, 'Odyssey' weaves the story of Andreas Litras' migrant family through the legend of Odysseus, hero of the classic text - Homer's Odyssey. Using Odysseus' long journey home to counterpoint the modern... more

Bank manager Jack Kellner, is haunted by visions, the meaning of which he cannot fathom. A chance meeting with the descendant of a Holocaust survivor proves fatal when she immolates herself in front of him. He is later visited by the... more

Jackie wants her poetry published and her girlfriend back. Sally wants the courage to come out to her father and to find out what's distracting her girlfriend. Exploring the themes of integrity, self-discovery and the explosion of... more

A portrait of an individual genius growing up in small-town America. Based on the early life of Southern writer Carson McCullers, Southern Belle is an investigation of the nature of creativity and the yearning to belong. during... more

Spilling Bodies is all about falling. Falling in love, falling pregnant, falling from grace and falling apart, as well as the literal physical falls experienced from the cradle to the grave. The play interweaves the experiences of... more

St Kilda Story, an ensemble piece, links the history of the Scottish St Kilda, remote islands beyond the outer Hebrides, with contemporary St Kilda in Melbourne. In 1930 the last thirty-six inhabitants were evacuated from St Kilda,... more

Bill is an electrician in a small country town. One day he wakes to find he has a hole in his head. At the same time, bit by bit, his whole world comes crashing in around him. The Stationary Traveller is about Bill's attempts to... more

Svetlana is about the internal world of the Fretler family, Russian migrants in Adelaide circa 1965, as seen through the eyes of a teenager, Svetlana. Set against the memories of WWII, the Cold War and the Sexual Revolution & Women's... more

TOXIC is an examination of addictive behaviours - yours, mine and ours - and their underlying causes. Using the metaphor of the Supermarket of Desire, this multi-artform performance text traces the journey of a young girl/boy 'of a... more

The play tells the story of Trembling, a girl tormented by her two beautiful sisters for being fat and ungainly. They force her to take a seemingly impossible quest to save their father. She travels through remnant forest where she... more

A play that plunges into youth subculture from a working class migrant perspective. Alex Kryiakou may be the writer of Spoken Beat (a new wave of performance writing), but she has little control over the process and isn't sure where... more

Marjorie McKay has given up on life. Since her beloved Reg died, she's seen herself as a useless old woman. Then, in the romantic novel that her sister Jean is reading, Marjorie recognises the the rug that she crocheted for Reg in... more

Tom is demonstrating an exciting new Virtual Reality Experience in his 'Significant Composers' CD-ROM history series. Old Ethel, a strikingly peculiar woman 'drops-down' and disrupts everything, including Tom's neurons. Ethel and... more

There are whispers...Anne is an Anglican. She wants to arrange things...and not just the church flower roster. There are more whispers...Anne is called to become a priest. At a time when her husband Davidis about to be made a... more