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Press Release

Lilith: The Jungle Girl

15 Aug 2016

MTC joins forces with Sisters Grimm for a world premiere production that will visually defy expectations and transform the Lawler as you’ve never seen it before when Lilith: The Jungle Girl opens on Saturday 3 September at Southbank Theatre.

Having won the hearts of audiences around Australia, Sisters Grimm return to MTC after the runaway success of their award-winning 2013 NEON Festival production, The Sovereign Wife.

Lilith: The Jungle Girl will take audiences on an epic, genre-defying journey as it explores assimilation and addresses the question: What happens to someone put into a world they don’t fit into?

Directed by Declan Greene, this subversive Sisters Grimm production, commissioned and presented as part of MTC’s NEON NEXT, stars Ash Flanders in the title role of Lilith, alongside the inimitable Candy Bowers and Genevieve Giuffre.

Director Declan Greene said, ‘_The Sovereign Wife_ was one of the biggest, wildest shows we’ve ever made and it’s really exciting to be coming back to the Lawler three years later, a little older and a little wiser, to make another mess. It was a crazy-amazing honour to be part of the first season of NEON, alongside some of the best, bravest theatre artists in the country, and we’re delighted MTC has invited us to kick off its next incarnation.’

When a young wild girl is captured in the rainforests of Borneo, all of Holland is set abuzz.The year is 1861, and pioneering neuro-scientist Charles Penworth is called upon to raise the child from the pit of her animal nature. But as Lilith learns to tame her feral heart and live amongst the glitterati of colonial Amsterdam, she begins to wonder, who, indeed, is the real savage?

As Sisters Grimm, collaborators Ash Flanders and Declan Greene create fiercely smart, anarchic comedies that fearlessly question the world we live in. Known for taking inspiration from well-known classics and pop-culture, then reconstructing them through a playfully distorted lens, Sisters Grimm have made a name for themselves as one of the country’s most exciting independent theatre companies. Their critically acclaimed works include Calpurnia Descending, Summertime in the Garden of Eden, Little Mercy, The Sovereign Wife and La Traviata.

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Cast Candy Bowers, Ash Flanders, Genevieve Giuffre

Director Declan Greene

Set and Costume Designer Marg Horwell

Lighting Designer Benjamin Cisterne

Composer and Sound Designer THE SWEATS

Video Design and Animation Emma Valente

Dramaturg Nakkiah Lui

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‘Flanders proves himself an obscenely funny and enviably talented performer.’ The Age

‘Extremely important, albeit insane, theatre.’ Inpress (On Cellblock Booty)

‘Sisters Grimm tread the line between the frivolous and the furiously political better than anybody making theatre in Australia right now.’ The Daily Review

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Venue
Southbank Theatre, The Lawler

Season dates
1 September – 1 October

Opening night
Saturday 3 September, 8pm

Tickets on sale now
MTC Box Office
03 8688 0800 or mtc.com.au

Published on 15 August 2016