Vivid White

An all-star cast including Gillian Cosgriff (The Pirates of Penzance), Virginia Gay (The Beast),Brent Hill (Little Shop of Horrors), Verity Hunt-Ballard (Mary Poppins), Keegan Joyce (Rake), Ben Mingay (Wonderland) and Christina O’Neill (Gaybies) will bring to life Eddie Perfect’s piercing new satire, Vivid White, when it premieres at Southbank Theatre on Thursday 23 November.

Directed by MTC Associate Director Dean Bryant, Vivid White takes a ruthless and riotous swipe at middle-class aspiration, and the living nightmare that is the Australian housing market.

Eddie Perfect’s first play, The Beast, took MTC audiences by storm in 2013, breaking box office records and confirming Melbourne’s appetite for theatre that delivers a healthy dose of merciless irony. In Vivid White, Eddie stirs the pot a little further, adding satirical songs to top off the outrageous comedy.

This production heralds an acclaimed creative team including costume designer Tim Chappel, best known for his Oscar and Tony award-winning designs in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, musical director James Simpson (Twisted Broadway), set designer Owen Phillips (Little Shop of Horrors), lighting designer Ross Graham (Little Shop of Horrors) and sound designer Russell Goldsmith (What Rhymes with Cars and Girls).

Dean Bryant said, ‘Vivid White is the most theatrical new piece I’ve read in years – a roller coaster of comically dark scenes, interspersed with modern-day Weill-esque songs, and a climax unlike anything seen on MTC’s stage before. Eddie has one of the best gifts in the world, the ability to make you laugh hysterically at how ridiculous we are, and then leave you awake in the middle of the night. This new work screams off the page as a terrifyingly vivid look at what our world is becoming and it is thrilling to bring it to life.’

Liz and Ben have known Cynthia and Evan for years and would never let anything get in the way of their friendship. Except when the couples each set their sights on buying the same house – well, that’s different. Forget friendship, forget respect, forget human decency: this is the property market. And nothing, not even the imminent collapse of civilisation itself, can stop the zombie-like single-mindedness of buying the perfect house.

Eddie Perfect is one of Australia’s most diverse, respected and prolific writers, composers and performers, having made his mark in the fields of comedy, music theatre composition, playwriting, screenwriting, classical music, jazz and acting for stage and screen. Eddie’s first play, The Beast, was commissioned and produced by MTC in 2013 to critical and box office success. In 2016 a new production of The Beast toured to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Eddie is currently writing songs for King Kong on Broadway, and is the composer and lyricist for the upcoming Broadway adaptation of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice. Among his many other writing credits are Shane Warne The Musical and Songs From The Middle, as well as his solo music comedy shows Angry Eddie, Drink Pepsi Bitch and Misanthropology, which all received Helpmann and Green Room Awards and toured Australia, New Zealand, Edinburgh and London. As an actor and performer, Eddie’s credits include Offspring, a host on ABC’s Playschool and a judge on Australia’s Got Talent. Eddie is also Co-Artistic Director of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

MTC Associate Director Dean Bryant is one of Australia’s most accomplished and versatile directors. For MTC he has directed Born Yesterday, Skylight, I’ll Eat You Last and Next to Normal. Dean also worked on Macbeth, The Drowsy Chaperone, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (and STC season), Hitchcock Blonde and Urinetown (and STC season) for the Company. His other directing credits include Sweet Charity (Helpmann Award, Best Director of a Musical) and Little Shop of Horrors for Hayes Theatre Company, Anything Goes (Opera Australia/GFO), Once We Lived Here (London season), DreamSong (TheatreWorks), Straight (Red Stitch), The Last Five Years, Prodigal, Virgins: A Musical Threesome and five musicals for The Production Company. With composer Mathew Frank, he wrote Green Room award-winning musicals Prodigal and Once We Lived Here, as well as Britney Spears: The Cabaret, Virgins: A Musical Threesome, The Silver Donkey and an Amy Winehouse musical for Channel 10’s Mr & Mrs Murder. Dean created verbatim piece Gaybies (Midsumma, Darlinghurst Theatre Company). Dean is Worldwide Associate Director of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – The Musical and is a graduate of WAAPA.

Cast Gillian Cosgriff, Virginia Gay, Brent Hill, Verity Hunt-Ballard, Keegan Joyce, Ben Mingay, Christina O’Neill

Director Dean Bryant

Musical Director/
Orchestrator
James Simpson

Set Designer
Owen Phillips

Costume Designer
Tim Chappel

Lighting Designer
Ross Graham

Sound Designer
Russell Goldsmith

Assistant Director
Sarah Kriegler

Season
18 November – 23 December

Opening Night
23 November, 8pm

Venue
Southbank Theatre, The Sumner

Tickets
03 8688 0800
mtc.com.au

#VividWhite
mtc.com.au/Vivid-White

An MTC commission