MEDIA RELEASE: MONDAY 6 AUGUST 2007

NEW DIRECTIONS Season 2007 - "ROOM TO PLAY"

3 plays - 3 weeks - 3 of Britain's best contemporary playwrights

new theatre's New Directions season is now in its eighth year! In 2007, under the banner "ROOM TO PLAY", new theatre will provoke, challenge and entertain with three stunning examples of modern British drama: insightful, moving, dark and funny.

Play One: 22 - 25 August 2007

DAMAGES

by Steve Thompson
Directed by Adam Gelin

"It's not in the public interest just because it interests the public"

A tabloid newspaper an hour before deadline - and the clock is ticking. A sensational photo that has the potential to ruin a star has landed on the editor's desk. Who sent it, and why? Is everything really as it seems? And the biggest question of all: play it safe, or publish and be damned? As the ink hits the paper, the shit hits the fan!

Damages is a witty tale of power-hungry hacks, suicidal sub-editors and razor-sharp lawyers trying to put the past and the paper to bed.

"Anyone who has ever had a friend, a job or read a newspaper will find Damages enthralling" (Evening Standard - London)

CAST: Michael Briggs, Alan Faulkner, Pamela Jikiemi and Matt Rossner

Play Two: 29 August - 1 September 2007

AFTER THE END (Australian Premiere)

by Dennis Kelly
Directed by Luke Rogers

"The only way people can destroy you is if you let them make you become something else"

A pub is bombed. Louise wakes to find herself trapped with Mark in his bomb shelter. Mark is always prepared for the worst and has everything they'll need to survive; tinned chilli, Dungeons & Dragons, and a knife. Now all they have to do is wait. Can they survive the attack? Can they survive each other?

"This quirky, ballsy two-hander is a neat black comedy and psychological thriller that gathers potency the longer it lingers in the mind" (Time Out, Critics Choice - London)

Please note: This production contains coarse language, violence and sexual content

CAST: Katherine Hicks and Matthew Hyde

Play Three: 5 - 8 September 2007

HONEYMOON SUITE (Australian Premiere)

by Richard Bean
Directed by Louise Fischer

"You love someone, you can feel it, like a lump, summat you carry around with yer. Bloody hell, it's either there or it isn't, like a hat"

If Romeo and Juliet had lived would their marriage have survived? When the honeymoon was over would the couple have coped with poverty, corruption, a miscarriage, an ungrateful daughter, infidelity with an attractive lad from night class, and even a murder?

Married life begins with great expectations, but the future may have other ideas.

"Richly funny, deeply sad... a superb play" (Daily Telegraph - London)

CAST: Honey Bourgeois, Zach Lee, Peter McCallum, James Shoobridge, Helen Tonkin and Annette van Roden

NEW DIRECTIONS 2007
DAMAGES: 22 - 25 August 2007
AFTER THE END: 29 August - 1 September 2007
HONEYMOON SUITE: 5 - 8 September 2007
Wednesday - Saturday @ 8pm
Tickets: $22
Season Pass: $55 (all 3 plays)
Tuesday previews: $10 (21 August, 28 August 2007, 4 September 2007)
Bookings: 1300 306 776 / www.mca-tix.com

For all media enquiries, including interviews and images, please contact: newtheatre@bigpond.com / 9519 3403

new theatre media-release-2007-08-06.shtml Last updated 10 October 2007.
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