AustLit

'John Everyman has been gifted a dog - an unwelcome intrusion into an otherwise ordered life. But the demands of ‘owning’ one lead that life in directions he hadn’t anticipated. In a compellingly human story that ranges from slapstick through to pathos (and all stops between), this gentle yet moving reflection on the meaning of life and love will send you out into the night with a sense of having journeyed to the heart of what it is to be human.

'‘Everyman & His Dog’ was inspired, somewhat obviously, by the expression itself which, like most idiomatic expressions, can be contracted to just one word: Everyone.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'US President Charles Foster Raye (Chuck) is due to address the UN in order to try and avert an all out war with China. He approaches a speechwriter, Theresa, in order to write the first great speech of the 21st century for the occasion. Unable to resist such an opportunity, she takes on the challenge, then panics, terrified that she will be unable to deliver. Norman, her therapist, offers to help her through the process. Together, with the iconic speeches of the 20th century projected over the entire set, they deconstruct each speech, in an effort to discover what makes it work.

'The reason that Norman offers to help Theresa is that he is deeply in love with her, but cannot say anything because of the therapeutic relationship. Norman's therapist, Prudence, disapproves strongly. Never having been in a serious relationship herself, she aches for the touch of another human being, but would never dream of acting on this desire.

'As it happens, Prudence is also the President's therapist. Chuck is not coping, and is on the verge of a total breakdown. Prudence feels she should somehow reveal his predicament, for the public good, but is restrained by her fear of destabilising the nation in a time of crisis.

'As the public rhetoric of freedom grows increasingly hyperbolic with each successive speech, the personal freedom of each of the characters progressively narrows, as they become increasingly trapped by their circumstances.

'A moving study of the illusory nature of freedom in the West.' (Publisher's blurb)

It is 1982. Faride, a young perfume sales rep, is on a train. It is her first trip to Paris. Father Sam Brown, a Catholic priest, enters the compartment and engages a reluctant Faride in conversation. A game of cat and mouse ensues until, finally, their true identities are unmasked. In the scene that follows, Faride is being interrogated for her part in a terrorist plot to destroy the Eiffel Tower. It transpires that she is pregnant. An immaculate conception. She is to be incarcerated and, upon delivery, separated from her child.
It is 2006. Sam, an orthodox Jewish mohel (one who performs ritual circumcisions), is on a train. Into his compartment steps Dimity, a young US soldier. She is on her way to Washington to receive the Congressional Medal of Honour for the courage she has shown during her tour of duty in Iraq. But during her time in Iraq, she has discovered her true identity, and has decided that she will use the occasion to make a political speech. During the conversation that ensues, Sam's true identity is revealed, and Dimity holds him at knife-point. Her ascendancy, however, is short-lived.
In the scene that follows, Faride, dressed in her purest Muslim finery, is on a train. She is on her way to Mecca, for the Haj. Seated opposite her in the compartment is a bearded figure claiming to be Osama Bin Laden. During the conversation that ensues, their true identities are revealed. Faride is there to avenge her daughter's death. Sam is on his way to destroy Islam's most sacred site - the Tomb of Abraham. Only one will emerge from the train alive.
In a play of mounting tension, twists and turns, the relationship between Islam and the West is played out as it has never been played out before. (Publisher's blurb)

It is November 22, 1963. JFK has just been shot dead. We are aboard Air Force One, taking off from Love Field in Dallas, Texas: Lyndon Baines Johnson, the newly sworn-in President, Jackie Kennedy, the grieving widow of the recently deceased President, and the casket - the last forming the centrepiece in what is arguably the most emotionally charged airplane journey of all time.
As the hunt for the assassin unfolds off-stage, the Widow and the Usurper are forced to confront the personal consequences of what has just happened. Layer by painful layer is stripped back as we bear witness to the dreams, the fears and the regrets of these two iconic figures, suddenly finding themselves at the very pivoting point of history. Initially at opposite poles of the emotional universe, by journey's end they have reached an odd kind of understanding - one that has taken root in the shadow of the dead President's casket.
Taking its inspiration from recorded conversations that took place between Lyndon Baines Johnson and Jackie Kennedy in the wake of the assassination, Love Field explores what it is inside one human being that engenders love in another.

Lottie is a Holocaust survivor with a mission, and that mission is to silence - once and for all - the world-renowned revisionist documentary-maker and Holocaust-denier, Magnus. In order to do this, she conceives a plan whereby she will invite him to open an exhibition, ostensibly as part of a fund-raising drive designed to raise backing for his next documentary.
But there are two things she omits to mention in her invitation: First, the fact that the venue for the fundraiser is the Jewish Holocaust Museum and, second, the nature of the chief exhibit. For it is Lottie's ambition to create a massive mural using the excised tattoos from the forearms of 3,500 Holocaust survivors.
Herman, the curator of the museum, is understandably appalled, and vetoes the plan. But Lottie will achieve her ends by fair means or foul.
In a fast-moving play that weaves its way skilfully through the complex web of relationships that exists between its five characters, Blood Libel places us on a collision course with what lies at the very core of anti-semitism. In so doing, however, it also paints a far broader canvas delineating the nature of the blood libel that each of us carries close to our heart.

'Sol, a blind piano player, is asked by the Goldberg family to write a speech. Quick to observe the nuances of emotion that run through this family of combatants, what follows is a journey of laughter and love, spotted with the occasional furtive tears, as Sol marks the family's births, deaths and marriages through his speeches. His vision, however, is somewhat obscured when it comes to acknowledging his own heart.

This wise and witty play observes how honesty, objectivity and affection can survive the most tangled of relationships.'

Source: Australian Plays.org