AustLit

'You’re a dead man if they find you.

'Step back in time to 19th-century London, where intrigue and mystery mix in the world premiere of Jack Maggs. Peter Carey’s best-selling and Miles Franklin Award-winning “reworking” of Charles Dickens’ canonical novel Great Expectations, Jack Maggs comes alive on stage in a sweeping new adaptation by South Australian playwright Samuel Adamson, renowned for his successes at England’s National Theatre with Southwark Fair and The Light Princess with Tori Amos.

'The story follows the enigmatic ex-convict Jack Maggs (Carey’s version of Magwitch) returning to London from Australia and embarking on a relentless quest to find his ‘son’ Henry Phipps, who has mysteriously disappeared. Maggs soon becomes entangled in the web of Phipps’ neighbour, Percy Buckle and his bizarre household, where he makes a deal with young novelist and “mesmerist” Tobias Oates (or is it Charles Dickens himself?) to find Phipps. Oates has other plans though, and in Maggs, might just find the perfect inspiration for his new novel.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'- And your husband forgave you. But what did you do? Decided that forgiveness was offensive and walked out on your marriage. With nothing. Into nothing.

'- Into everything, I think.

'It's 1959. Robert leaves Ibsen's A Doll's House outraged by its attack on the sanctity of marriage; his wife Daisy dashes round to the stage door, in love with both Nora and the actress who plays her, thrilled by their promise of escape.

'Daisy is at the crossroads. Her moral compass tells her to go one way, society the other. What she chooses to do next will have consequences not just for her and Robert, but for four couples who come after them over ninety years.

'The truth is we have to give up parts of ourselves if we want to be with someone. And what if, before you know this, you run away from the wrong person?

'Samuel Adamson's Wife premiered at Kiln Theatre, London, in May 2019.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'When her seventeen year-old son dies, Manuela leaves her job and takes to the road to search for her son's father. In Barcelona, she becomes involved with three women in crisis: a young nun, a famous actress and a drag queen. Yet, will taking care of these women help her overcome her guilt and grief for a lost child?'

Source: Melbourne Theatre Company website, http://www.mtc.com.au/
Sighted: 16/08/2010