Australian comedy legend Jane Turner (Kath & Kim) stars alongside Peter Paltos (Gloria), Nikki Shiels (Bloom), Toby Truslove (Utopia), Izabella Yena (Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears) and Susie Youssef (No Activity) in the Olivier Award-winning play, Home, I’m Darling, when it opens on Friday 24 January at Southbank Theatre.
Every couple needs a little fantasy to keep their marriage sparkling, but is Judy and Johnny’s perfect 50s life a perfect lie? Laura Wade’s piercingly funny story of one woman’s quest to be the ideal 1950s housewife speaks to our penchant for nostalgia and society’s relentless pursuit of perfection.
Directed by MTC Associate Artistic Director Sarah Goodes (Così), this Australian premiere production promises a dreamy mix of sharp social observation and infectious laughter from start to finish.
Sarah Goodes said, ‘Home, I’m Darling puts our love of nostalgia under the microscope. The world created within this play glistens with the shiny hopefulness of the 1950s and follows the character of Judy in her dedicated and desperate attempts to maintain the aesthetics of this world. The piece hums with an undercurrent of darker truths as it examines the reliance on role play within a marriage and how we are defined by our social and financial choices about how to live in the modern world.’
Laura Wade is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter from the UK. Home, I’m Darling premiered at Theatre Clwyd in 2018 before transferring to the National Theatre where it received rave reviews. In 2019, Home, I’m Darling won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy. Her other works include stage adaptations of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel The Watsons for Chichester Festival Theatre in 2018 and Sarah Waters’ Tipping The Velvet in 2015, which premiered at the Lyric Hammersmith before transferring to the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh. Laura’s screenplay The Riot Club, an adaptation of her 2010 stage play Posh, premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2014. Her play Posh opened at the Royal Court Theatre in 2010 before having another season on the West End in 2012.
Sarah Goodes is Associate Artistic Director of Melbourne Theatre Company. She is a Helpmann Award-winning theatre director recognised for bringing over 14 new Australian works to the mainstage. For MTC, Sarah’s work includes Golden Shield, Così, Arbus & West,Astroman,A Doll’s House, Part 2, The Children (with Sydney Theatre Company), Three Little Words and John. As Resident Director at Sydney Theatre Company, Sarah directed The Hanging, Disgraced, Orlando, Battle of Waterloo, The Effect, Vere (Faith), The Splinter and Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness. Sarah’s other directing credits include The Sugar House (Belvoir), The Sweetest Thing, The Small Things, Elling, and Black Milk (B Sharp Belvoir); The Colour of Panic (Sydney Opera House); Vertigo and the Virginia, The Schelling Point, Hilt, and What Happened Was (Old Fitz Theatre). In 2018, Sarah won a Helpmann Award for Best Direction of a Play for her work on The Children, which also won Helpmann Awards for Best Play and Best Female Actor.
Winner of the 2019 Olivier Award for Best Comedy
★★★★★
‘An affecting, inspiring evening.’ The Times (UK)
‘A cracking new play.’ Mail on Sunday (UK)
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Cast Peter Paltos, Nikki Shiels, Toby Truslove, Jane Turner, Susie Youssef, Izabella Yena
Director Sarah Goodes Set & Costume Designer Renee Mulder Lighting Designer Paul Jackson Composer & Sound Designer Jethro Woodward Voice & Dialect Coach Geraldine Cook-Dafner Choreographer Steven Grace Assistant Director Bessie Holland
Season Dates 20 Jan – 22 February
Opening Night Friday 24 January, 8pm
Venue Southbank Theatre, The Sumner
Tickets mtc.com.au 03 8688 0800
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