KANGAROO
by Miranda Gott
Three strangers, intricately entwined by the events of one fateful night.
In a small regional town, three people share their own funny, yet tragic, stories that cause their lives to converge.
Melissa, a mother at 18, escaping a home life with an emotionally abusive father. Her daughter is now 5, and Melissa is coming to realise that history is repeating itself.
Mick, an enthusiast for his work – tending the sewage facility and collecting the town’s garbage. Once a bright child, betrayal by a trusted adult forms his home-grown philosophy about life’s disposability.
Barbara, a former university lecturer in art, who has made a fresh start in the town with her investment speculator husband. Settling into country life, her academic understanding of death is confronted by the reality of life and death among rural animals.
Kangaroo is a truly inspired new work by a first time playwright based in Bathurst, New South Wales. It weaves and dances, revealing a dark and poetic world of solitude, strength, survival and death.
This work is presented by Local Stages at BMEC in association with Lingua Franca. It has been supported by ROUTES – a regional partnership between Lingua Franca, Local Stages and Q Theatre.
This work is currently in development for premiere in July & September 2020 and will be ready to tour. For enqiries about the work please contact Kylie Shead at Local Stages at kylie.shead@bathurst.nsw.gov.au
More about the work
Kangaroo is a truly classic Australian gothic tale of regional and personal isolation. The funny and damaged characters are vibrant, engaging and reflective of the diverse experiences of life outside of the metropolitan Australia. The script is three monologues magically woven together, creating a poetic and compelling new, one act Australian play.
With a truly rural energy, this play talks to personal isolation that people irrespective of their relationship with the country can connect with. These monologues are magnificently woven subtly revealing each character’s part in the death of Kane Heckford – none realising the others’ role in the act or subsequent cover up.
The underlying themes of familial abuse and our communities’ ineptitude to deal with violence, is cleverly embedded in the work without being bluntly political. This production will privilege the emotional journey of the characters, leaving the audience with a satisfying, compelling and confronting theatrical experience prompting reflection on revenge, loneliness, violence and rural Australia.
A soundscape will underpin the performances, enhancing the emotional world each of the characters inhabit. A dappled and breathing lighting design will seem to move through the space as an enigmatic silent character, highlighting the important action as if by chance.
The worlds of the different characters will be deftly woven together to create an abstracted space set up in the traverse. The silent but omnipresent community of the small country town where the play is based, is beautifully represented by the opposing audience behind the action. This intimate staging, will enhance the characters situation, sharing their darkest secrets with the seemingly complicit audience. The closeness of the seating to the stage will allow for the smallest nuances of the performances to be readable.