Shoelace Chaser

This is rated 5 out of 5 stars

‘Tender, funny and deeply human, Shoelace Chaser will stay with you like the ache in your legs after a long run home.’

The Scoop

This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

'Shoelace Chaser walks a solid line with bursts of cheeky humour, private moments of gravitas, subtle grace and sincere heart.'
Theatre Matters

This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

'A funny, engaging and thoughtful story.'
Yoothz

This is rated 0 out of 5 stars

‘The exquisite pairing of Nunn and Satchell delivers a show full of heart. Take your teens. Or take yourself.’

Theatre First

This is rated 0 out of 5 stars

‘A spirited and triumphant production.’

The Blurb

ABOUT THE SHOW

Being 17 is hard enough – hormones, homework, the looming question of what comes next. Add caring for your mum to the mix, and Thea’s juggling act is nothing short of Olympic.

Smart, self-sufficient and secretly just holding it together, she’s spent the last two years keeping her life under wraps. No-one knows she’s a carer. Not even Syd, her endlessly chatty new running partner who pushes her to pursue a university athletics scholarship and dream of something more. But chasing that future means leaving her mum behind – and the last time Thea tried that, things didn’t quite go to plan.

Starring Leigh Lule (Trophy Boys), Zoe Boesen (Abigail’s Party) and Elliot Wood (Storked), AWGIE Award winner Madelaine Nunn’s moving new play sensitively explores our responsibilities to those we love, the untold strength of care and the courage to know when to lean on others for help. Directed by Green Room Award-winning theatre maker Liv Satchell (Ballkids), Shoelace Chaser is a warm and feel-good story for anyone who’s ever been a teenager.

Developed through Melbourne Theatre Company’s NEXT STAGE Writers’ Program, with the support of our Playwrights Giving Circle

Wheelchair Accessible
Hearing Assistance
Auslan Interpreted

Performance Type	Performance Date(s)
Auslan Interpreted	Thursday 21 May at 1:30pm

Talks & Events

Forum Night
Monday 18 May

Stay after the show to join an enlightening conversation with the cast and creative team. Supported by Time & Place. Read more.

Key art by Jo Duck
Production photos by Jacinta Keefe

Regional Tour

Shoelace Chaser hits the road with a regional tour to Bendigo, Wodonga, Nunawading, Portland and Drysdale in 2026. Learn more.

Content Warnings

This production contains mature themes, occasional coarse language, theatrical haze effects, occasional loud sound effects and aroma including menthol. For detailed information about the production’s content click here.

Programme

Want to learn more about Shoelace Chaser? View our interactive digital programme.

School Bookings

Shoelace Chaser features on the 2026 VCE Drama Playlist.

To make a school group booking, click here.

The education performances at 1.30pm on Thu 14 May, Wed 20 May and Tue 26 May will include a post-show Q&A. Ticketed pre-show talks are also available at 11.30am before these performances.

Learning resources will be available in the Education Hub. To purchase a script, click here.

Zoe Boesen

Fiona

Leigh Lule

Thea

Elliot Wood

Syd

Madelaine Nunn

Writer

Liv Satchell

Director

Bianca Pardo

Set & Costume Designer

Thomas Roach

Lighting Designer

Tom Backhaus

Composer & Sound Designer

Lucie Sutherland

Stage Manager

Jenny Le

Assistant Stage Manager

View All

Zoe Boesen

Fiona

Zoe first appeared in Melbourne Theatre Company’s Neon Festival as Madame Volanges in Dangerous Liaisons. She rejoined the company to play Angela in Abigail’s Party. Recent stage credits include Is Anyone Even Watching (Arts House); Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (Little Ones Theatre/45 Downstairs); Security (Darebin Arts Speakeasy); Dance Nation, Suddenly Last Summer, The Moors, My Romantic History (Red Stich Actors’ Theatre). Other highlights include Psycho Beach Party (Little Ones/Theatre Works/ Tamarama Rock Surfers/Brisbane Festival) and After All This (Elbow Room). Screen credits include Neighbours (Fremantle Media) Sisters (Network 10), Time of Our Lives (ABC TV) and Offspring (Network 10). Zoe was nominated twice for a Green Room Award and received the Melbourne Fringe Festival Award for Best Performance and the Green Room Award for Best Ensemble for After All This (Elbow Room).

Leigh Lule

Thea

Leigh Lule is a Ugandan-Australian actress, writer, and theatre maker based in Naarm. After joining Western Edge Arts in 2018, she began writing and performing theatre works as a member of the Sub-30 Collective. On stage, Leigh originated the role of David in the award-winning production Trophy Boys (The Maybe Pile/Soft Tread Enterprises). Other performance credits include The Retreat (Western Edge Arts); Now This (Western Edge Arts/Malthouse); POINT8SIX (La Mama); and upcoming horror-comedy series Gnomes (STAN). Leigh is the co-creator, writer and performer of web-series CEEBS, supported by Screen Australia and VicScreen. As a screenwriter, she has written for TikTok series Going Home (Nansumba), ABC ME’s Turn Up The Volume (Matchbox) and was the Script Attachment for Season 3 of Netflix’s Heartbreak High (Fremantle).

Elliot Wood

Syd

Elliot Wood (they/he) is a Melbourne/Naarm-based theatre maker and performer, having graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Music Theatre) in 2022. He is beyond thrilled and deeply humbled to be making his Melbourne Theatre Company debut. They are passionate about new work and believe deeply in comedy as a tool to affect and inspire change. Their recent credits include Storked (Antipodes Theatre) and their debut solo show, Mrs Lovett’s Famous Meat Pies Grand Reopening Extravaganza for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Elliot was the recipient of the Nancye Hayes scholarship in 2020.

Madelaine Nunn

Writer

Madelaine Nunn is an AWGIE Award–winning writer, actor and producer working across theatre, film and radio since graduating from VCA in 2015. Her award-winning solo show FLICK has toured internationally to New York, Washington D.C., Edinburgh and Latitude Festival. She is founder of Mad Nun Productions, co-founder of Three Birds Theatre and Artistic Director of Rollercoaster Theatre. Her writing credits include sitting, screaming (The Old Fitz); FLICK (Summerhall/Theatre Row/La Mama); SAAM (ATYP); Cactus (La Mama/RAV); The Chapel, The Fire & the Dead Cat (AYTP); Kinder Surprise (ABC RN); and Bin Chicken (ATYP/Griffin Theatre Company). Her many awards include The House of Oz Purse Prize, The Martin Lysicrates Prize, The Rebel Wilson Scholarship, The ATYP Foundation Commission and The Jopuka Elderslee Commission. She is a three-time AWGIE nominee and has also received Green Room Award nominations.

Liv Satchell

Director

Liv Satchell is a theatre maker, writer and community organiser with a Masters of Directing from VCA. Her work includes Ballkids (or, scenes from a friendship), co-directed with Julian Dibley-Hall (La Mama/VIMH); The Grief Trilogy (La Mama/VIMH); and SIRENS by Benjamin Nichol (Melbourne Fringe Festival/VIMH). She has been nominated for Best Director four times at the Green Room Awards and has been awarded Outstanding Writing for Independent Theatre for three of her original works. She was also awarded the 2024 Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award and the inaugural New Writing Award, supported by Melbourne Theatre Company as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival, for Ballkids (or, scenes from a friendship). She made her mainstage debut in 2024 with Nayika: A Dancing Girl (Belvoir), which she co-created with Nithya Nagarajan.

Bianca Pardo

Set & Costume Designer

Bianca is a passionate Melbourne/Naarm-based designer and maker. She has worked in set and costume design roles on West Gate, Mother Play, A Streetcar Named Desire (Melbourne Theatre Company); What’s Yours (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre); Tarzan (James Terry Collective); RED (Little Life Productions); En Masse, Interior (Rawcus); One Day in September (Perryman Theatre Company); Guys and Dolls, Passing Strange (Antipodes Theatre Company); TakeBack! (Multicultural Arts Victoria); Ngarngk: Giver of Life (La Mama/YIRRAMBOI Festival); Fucking A, Mad Forest (Victorian College of the Arts); L'Oréal For Women in Science and Kenworth's Legacy (Moo Motion). She was nominated for Green Room Awards for her Tarzan and Guys and Dolls designs. Throughout 2024, she completed the Besen Family Artist Program at the Malthouse Theatre with placements on The Hate Race and Fuck Christmas. Bianca was delighted to be a part of the inaugural Future Creatives Program at the Melbourne Theatre Company in 2024 and 2025.

Thomas Roach

Lighting Designer

Thomas Roach started his career in community theatre at the age of 14 in his home town of Townsville, North Queensland. He then landed a job with Dancenorth as a technician, touring nationally and internationally with the company. He later moved to Naarm, continuing to work as a lighting technician throughout the Arts Precinct. Tom currently works full time for Melbourne Theatre Company as Deputy Lighting Supervisor at Southbank Theatre. He has continued his passion for lighting design on the side, notably lighting Reference Material by Alisasin Macindoe 2021, which won a Green Room Award for Lighting Design; One Day, directed by Nathan Maynard (YIRRAMBOI Festival) in 2023 and Our Monsters Name is Jerry (Dirty Pennies Theatre) in 2025.

Tom Backhaus

Composer & Sound Designer

Tom is a Naarm-based composer, sound designer, producer and stage manager. He has previously worked at Melbourne Theatre Company as associate sound designer on Astroman. Other theatre credits include i sat and waited but you were gone too long, Ballkids (or scenes from a friendship), my sister feather, let bleeding girls lie (VIMH); End Of. (Griffin Theatre Company); The Temple, The Importance of Being Earnest (Malthouse Theatre); Feather in the Web (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre); Become The One and Every Lovely Terrible Thing (Lab Kelpie). Tom is the creative producer of award-winning drag comedy duo Dazza and Keif, and the production manager at Abbotsford Convent. He is also the producer of Get Bent Fest, a queer arts festival presented by Midsumma Festival.