Melbourne Theatre Company and Terrapin Puppet Theatre join forces for Egg, a brand new family production that follows a tale of hope and eco-adventures. Starring comedy favourite Genevieve Morris, Egg opens on Thursday 30 June at Southbank Theatre, The Lawler before heading across the Bass Strait for a season in Tasmania.
Silly and funny and a little bit cracked, this quirky story for ages 8-108 will reunite the acclaimed creative team of writer Angela Betzien and director Leticia Cáceres.
Director Leticia Cáceres said, ‘It is a joy to be working with my long-time collaborator Angela Betzien and the wonderful Terrapin Puppet Theatre on this exciting new commission. Egg will capture the imagination of audiences young and old when it takes over the Lawler this June, and transport them into this futuristic tale with an important message at its core.’
Across a dry and dusty desert, two tinkers, Clyde and Horse, drag an enormous egg. They can’t remember how long they’ve been dragging it, or why they’ve been dragging it, or where they are dragging it to. All they know is that it’s really important. Life on their big bald egg of a planet depends upon it. So there’s nothing to be done but to go on. Let’s tug this great big googy into the future. And who knows? Maybe something wonderful will hatch.
Angela Betzien is a multi-award winning writer and a founding member of independent theatre company RealTV whose work has toured widely across Australia and internationally. Her play The Dark Room won a 2010 AWGIE Award and the 2011 Sydney Theatre Award for Best New Australian Work. For Hoods, Angela was awarded the inaugural Richard Wherrett Prize for Excellence in Playwriting; and her play War Crimes won the 2012 Kit Denton Disfellowship and the QLD Literary Award for Playwriting, and was nominated for a NSW Premier’s Literary Award in 2012. Angela’s play Children of the Black Skirt toured Australian schools for three years and won the 2005 Drama Victoria Award for Best Performance by a Theatre Company for Secondary Schools. Her other works include Helicopter (Melbourne Theatre Company); Tall Man (Creative Regions); The Teenage Alchemist (Commissioned By Atyp And Camp Quality); Princess Of Suburbia (RealTV); Wickfield Wonderland (Canberra Youth Theatre) And The Kingswood Kids (La Boite).
Director Leticia Cáceres has been lauded as one of the most exciting talents in the country. For MTC she has directed Death and the Maiden, Birdland (for which she won the 2016 Green Room Award for Direction), The Effect, Cock, Constellations, Yellow Moon, Helicopter and Random (nominated for three Green Room Awards). She has also directed for Belvoir (Miss Julie and The Dark Room, nominated for seven Sydney Theatre Awards); La Mama (Tall Man); Creative Regions (Tales of the Underground); Queensland Theatre Company (The Orphanage Project, Far Away, and The Memory of Water); Sydney Opera House (Random, Hoods, and Children of the Black Skirt); La Boite Theatre/Brisbane Festival (Kingswood Kids); Arts Centre Melbourne, and Brisbane Powerhouse (Hoods and Children of the Black Skirt). She is the co-founder of nationally acclaimed independent theatre company RealTV whose seminal work Hoods won the 2009 Matilda Award for Best Independent Production.
Commissioned and developed by MTC and Terrapin Puppet Theatre with the assistance of the Australia Council Interconnections Program. A co-production with Terrapin Puppet Theatre.
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Cast Genevieve Morris, Jim Russell
Director Leticia Cáceres
Puppetry Director Sam Routledge
Puppeteer Michelle Robin Anderson
Set & Costume Designer Owen Phillips
Composer & Sound Designer THE SWEATS
Lighting Designer Andy Turner
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From the winner of the Australian Writers Guild Award for theatre for young audiences
‘Betzien and Cáceres are one of the most exciting theatrical pairings in the country.’ Sydney Morning Herald
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Venue
Southbank Theatre, The Lawler
Season dates
29 June – 15 July
Age recommendation
Families, children aged 8-12
Opening night
Thursday 30 June, 7pm
Tickets on sale now
MTC Box Office
03 8688 0800
mtc.com.au
#mtcEgg
@Melbtheatreco
Published on 1 June 2016