doollee banner
The Playwrights Database
contact doollee



Melissa Reeves

MELISSA REEVES

  

Nationality:    Australian
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Curtis Brown (Australia)Pty Ltd  

Melissa Reeves is a Melbourne playwright. Her plays include In Cahoots, Sweetown (winner of the 1993 Jill Blewitt Memorial Playwrights Award), Great Day, the Emperor's New Clothes, Storming Heaven, Road Movie and Salt Creek Murders (winner of the 2001 Wal Cherry Award). She has co-written a number of plays including the Girl I Love and Never Let Me Go (with Margaret Mills, Maude Davey and Nicki Redlich); Magpie (with Richard Frankland); Who's Afraid of the Working Class (winner of the 1999 Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Best Drama, two AWGIEs, and the 1999 Jill Blewitt Playwright's Award); and Fever (with Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, Christos Tsiolkas and composer Irine Vela).

Research:    http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/952

Buy Plays with Doollee

Each page of doollee.com has links to play/book outlets, either directly to the Publisher, through Stageplays.com and Amazon to the second hand and 1st editions of AbeBooks. These links will automatically take you to the relevant area obviating the need for further search.
AbeBooks.co.uk   AbeBooks.com   Stageplays.com   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.ca
whether you are a Playwright who wishes to make their entry definitive, an unlisted Playwright or a User with a tale to tell - we want to hear from you.
download WORD submission template

below is a list of Melissa Reeves's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

        All Of Which Are American Dreams         Art And Soul         Au Pair         Dream Town         Emperor's New Clothes, The         Fever         Furious Mattress         Girl I Love, The         Great Day         Happy Ending         In Cahoots         Little City         Magpie         Miracle Mum         Never Let Me Go         Procedure, The         Ray's Painting         Real World, The         Ridiculous Folly         Road Movie         Salt Creek Murders         Sign of the Phantom, The         Spook, The         Storming Heaven         Sweetown         Tough Girls         Who's Afraid Of the Working Class



All Of Which Are American Dreams

Synopsis:
This large-scale collaborative work. . . takes as its central theme the corruption of America. . .. Its most powerful medium is metaphorical, expressed in an acting group that is freakish, violent . . . frightened and frightening.

Notes:
written by Barry Dickins, Ben Ellis,Melissa Reeves, Robert Reid and Stephen Sewell

1st Produced:
Theatreworks, St Kilda, Vic     04 Jul 2003

Organisations:
Theatre in Decay

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
piece

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  7            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/29257

Top of Page Top of Page

Art And Soul

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Melbourne writers Matt Cameron (Whispering Death), Aidan Fennessy (The Slaughterhouse), Joanna Murray-Smith (Untitled), Tee O'Neill (Homage to Rembrandt), Melissa Reeves (Ray's Painting), Glenn Shea (Masterpiece) and Tom Wright (At Last the Famous Artist is Dead) have each written a short play in response to the same painting: Homage to Rembrandt by Australian artist Garry Shead. The set design recreates the environment of the painting and during the play the characters mirror the composition of the artwork.

1st Produced:
Fairfax Studio, Melbourne, Vic     18 Nov 2000

Organisations:
Melbourne Theatre Company

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
one act plays

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/79761

Top of Page Top of Page

Au Pair

Synopsis:
Au Pair visits young women looking after a lot more than kids in Europe

Notes:
part of Three plays from the AWGIE Award-winning playwrights Cornelius, Betzien and Reeves, exploring the gap year for thousands of young people at the end of their secondary school year.

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in The Gap: What Goes Down In Vegas, Au Pair, Welcome To Bulgaria, http://australianplays.org/script/ASC-1666   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Dream Town

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Flinders University Drama Centre, Bedford Park, Sa     2003

Organisations:
Flinders University Drama Centre

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/75344

Top of Page Top of Page

Emperor's New Clothes, The

Synopsis:
The traditional moral of the story is the emperor and his servants are too vain to admit their own fallibility.

Notes:
from the book by Hans Christian Andersen

1st Produced:
Napier Street Theatre, South Melbourne, Vic     17 Sep 1994

Organisations:
Arena Theatre Company

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
TYA

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/25734

Top of Page Top of Page

Fever

Synopsis:
Fever is made up of four plays The Chair, Blunt, Savant and Psalms, and a composition, The River. The Chair: In a desolated house, a lonely woman is confronted by an intruder. She ties him to a chair, but gives him the chance to win his freedom by moving her with his story. Savant: The members of a deeply depressed and morbid little community gather nightly to eat fish and chips and whinge about how good things used to be. They come to believe their malaise can be traced to an evil baby born to a frightened pair of teenagers. Psalms: Two young men, childhood friends, quickly become enemies when their country is plunged into civil war. In a landscape of unrelenting horror, one finds himself haunted by the ghost of the other, who is asking back for the heart, tongue and genitals that were taken from him. Blunt: A group of women live on a desolate and stinking landscape where nothing good grows anymore. They fetch a baby out of the river, save it, give it every chance. And what does it do? The ungrateful little shit goes and dies on them.

Notes:
written by Christos Tsiolkas, Melissa Reeves, Patricia Cornelius, Andrew Bovell

1st Produced:
Trades Hall, Carlton South, Vic     16 Sep 2002

Organisations:
Melbourne Workers Theatre

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
one act plays

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/81122

Top of Page Top of Page

Furious Mattress

Furious Mattress
In the heartland of rural Victoria, a backyard exorcism is about to commence. Else has always been a little different, even a little difficult, but when her husband seeks support from his local religious community, what he invites into their home will take the very shape of the unspeakable. Dashing cherished assumptions about guilt and free-will, innocence and redemption in a world of Christian religious values, Furious Mattress recasts events torn from tabloid headlines with Reeves signature wit and wisdom to remind us that most fundamentalists are far more familiar than the fanatics paraded before us in cautionary tales.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Beckett Theatre, The Cub Malthouse, Southbank, Melbourne     24 Feb 2010

Organisations:
Malthouse Theatre

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/83010

Top of Page Top of Page

Girl I Love, The

Synopsis:
An hour of warm, unspoken secrets about friendships between women

Notes:
devised by Melissa Reeves, Margaret Mills, Maude Davey And Nicki Redlich. This play grew out of a short piece presented as part of the 1987 Spoleto Fringe Festival.

1st Produced:
La Mama, Carlton, Vic     22 Jun 1988

Organisations:
La mama

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
one act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/616

Top of Page Top of Page

Great Day

Synopsis:
A production which shows that you can get real without being grim, suicidal or glib about unemployment.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Brunswick Mechanics Institute, Brunswick , Vic     02 Dec 1993

Organisations:
Melbourne Workers Theatre

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/23478

Top of Page Top of Page

Happy Ending

Synopsis:
Louise is a woman in her forties, with a young son, Josh, and a husband who we never actually meet. She conceives a passionate attachment for Lu, a young male masseur at a Chinese Massage shop in a large suburban Shopping Centre. Alternatively encouraged and discouraged by her girl-friend Liliana, Louise ferociously pursues her desire, enlisting the help of a Mandarin-speaking Australian Businessman and his Chinese boy-friend, and earning the scorn of Jie, the self-possessed and opinionated owner of the massage business. Happy Ending is a comedy about age, desire and obsession.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
http://Australianplays.org/script/ASC-1588   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Social comedy 90 min

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  male doubling

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

In Cahoots

Synopsis:
Tonight is the annual Parents and Friends evening of the First Cardwell Street Brownies. But when the new District Commissioner arrives to inspect the Brownie Troupe, she's not expecting spray cans, a hip flask full of whisky and a mushroom that incorporates a short wave radio.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Red Shed Theatre, Adelaide, Sa     23 Feb 1989

Organisations:
Red Shed Company

1st Published:
http://Australianplays.org/   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
2 Act 40 mins comedy Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  7            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/1691

Top of Page Top of Page

Little City

Synopsis:
Based around the idea of a community barricading itself inside the local town hall because it's fed up to the back teeth with indifferent and vindictive government cutbacks . . . Cuoculo's direction is inventive and controlled.

Notes:
written by Patricia Cornelius, Daniel Keene and Melissa Reeves

1st Produced:
Brunswick Town Hall, Brunswick, Vic     01 Dec 1996

Organisations:
Melbourne Workers Theatre

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
musical piece

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/29100

Top of Page Top of Page

Magpie

Synopsis:
Magpie swings from being raucous, squarking and cheeky, to a brutal miserable portrait of a country in denial about the racial prejudices upon which it is built and that informs its society.

Notes:
written by Richard J Frankland And Melissa Reeves

1st Produced:
Arts House North Melbourne Town Hall , North Melbourne, Vic     13 Nov 2001

Organisations:
Melbourne Workers Theatre

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
play with music

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/25652

Top of Page Top of Page

Miracle Mum

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Brown's Mart Theatre, Darwin, Nt     28 Nov 1991

Organisations:
Darwin Theatre Company

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/14438

Top of Page Top of Page

Never Let Me Go

Synopsis:
Never Let Me Go was put together by its three performers over two years, and falls into two very disparate and unequal parts. In the first part the women delve into their pasts to play out a series of vignettes. ..the longer second half the three women, each a mother of a grown daughter, meet for dinner.

Notes:
devised by Melissa Reeves, Margaret Mills, Maude Davey And Nicki Redlich

1st Produced:
Napier Street Theatre, South Melbourne, Vic     24 Nov 1992

Organisations:
Short Arms, Long Pockets

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/17567

Top of Page Top of Page

Procedure, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
written by Richard Frankland And Melissa Reeves

1st Produced:
Australia     22 Jun 1905

Organisations:
Marking Masculinity Project

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/106760

Top of Page Top of Page

Ray's Painting

Synopsis:
An artist tries to win back his muses after selling out to commercialism

Notes:
Melbourne writers Matt Cameron (Whispering Death), Aidan Fennessy (the Slaughterhouse), Joanna Murray-Smith (Untitled), Tee O'Neill (Homage to Rembrandt), Melissa Reeves (Ray's Painting), Glenn Shea (Masterpiece) and Tom Wright (At Last the Famous Artist is Dead) have each written a short play in response to the same painting: Homage to Rembrandt by Australian artist Garry Shead. the set design recreates the environment of the painting and during the play the characters mirror the composition of the artwork. Event titled Art and Soul.

1st Produced:
Fairfax Studio, Victorian Arts Centre (Aust)     18 Nov 2000

Organisations:
Commissioned by Melbourne Theatre Company in 2000

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
short play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Real World, The

Synopsis:
Rachel is imprisoned in a tower. Her Dad, Frank, is a toweringly rich businessman and he's given her everything, including a private menagerie, mostly of monkeys, plus he's locked her in the tower. He now wants her married off and pays four short blokes, an ex-cop, an ex-jockey, an ex- TV host and an ex-footy player all previously publicly shamed to give it a go. they work together, then they don't, and somewhere in the middle is Rachel, Money, ambition, stupidity, deep sadness and animal cruelty collide in this bittersweet cautionary tale.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Riverside Theatre, Parramatta, Australia     16 Mar 2011

Organisations:
Choice Cuts national play festival

1st Published:
http://Australianplays.org/   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
comedy 90 min

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Ridiculous Folly

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Originally performed As part of "All Of Which Are American Dreams"

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Short play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Road Movie

Synopsis:
Two workers from a sheltered workshop in Melbourne are involved unwittingly in a violent payroll robbery and become fugitives from justice . . . this is a charming and entertaining production, beautifully set (in a cutaway real car!) within the grunge environment of the Powerhouse site.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Power Station, Melbourne, Vic     26 Jul 1996

Organisations:
Melbourne Workers Theatre

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/28137

Top of Page Top of Page

Salt Creek Murders

Synopsis:
Jane Macmanamin starts work as a domestic at the Salt Creek Hotel, an isolated frontier outpost. the first thing she witnesses is an adulterous embrace between Nellie, her employer, and Malachi Martin, a yard-hand. A week later, Nellie's husband, John Robinson is murdered. Over the course of the play the lives of Nellie, Malachi and Jane become disturbingly intertwined, a triangular relationship of love, greed, fear and desire, leading remorselessly to a tragic conclusion. As the hotel deteriorates, and money is scarce, Malachi commits another murder in which Nellie may or may not be complicit, and Jane seems unable or unwilling to extricate herself from an increasingly perilous situation. SALT CREEK MURDERS is based on the true story of a series of murders committed in the 1850s in the Coorong in South Australia

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
http://Australianplays.org/   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
2 Act 130 mins Tragi-comic thriller

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Sign of the Phantom, The

Synopsis:
Reviewer's opinion (Australian and New Zealand Theatre Record): "Physical theatre in a very pure form - using the body to speak. It's a seductive, fascinating and highly entertaining experience for all." From Performance Space database: "George Phantom employed as a cleaner in the Hills of Calm Mental Institute by the seemingly jovial Dr Noah. As George gets to know the inmates he discovers that the rigid line painted by society between sanity and madness is a delusion and he is drawn into a bizarre guerilla war against the hospital establishment aided by surreal armies of the unconscious."

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Performance Space, Redfern, Nsw     07 Sep 1995

Organisations:
Australian Theatre of the Deaf

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
musical piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/60861

Top of Page Top of Page

Spook, The

Spook, The
In 1965 there doesn't seem to be too much going on in the ranks of the South Bendigo Communist Party. Slow Tribune sales are causing consternation and the local Maoist's Chinese slide nights are a perpetual thorn in their side - even the presence of young recruit Martin Porter has done little to inject life into the weekly grind. While Martin's mum frets about his inexplicable abandonment of the church, short hair and the army reserve, George and Eli Tassekis welcome him into their family like a second son. But Martin is an ASIO spy and he's about to get his new friends into serious trouble. "the Spook" is based on a real story of a teenager who was recruited by ASIA to spy on a small rural branch of the Communist Party and and continued to do so for 22 years.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Belvoir Street Theatre, Surry Hills, Nsw     03 Nov 2004

Organisations:
Company B Belvoir

1st Published:
Currency Press, Sydney   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/32353

Top of Page Top of Page

Storming Heaven

Synopsis:
A classic tale of underdog versus powerful hierarchy which Reeves and director Cath McKinnon are determined to tell without hagiorgraphy.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Space, Adelaide, Sa     25 Nov 1995

Organisations:
Red Shed Company

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
musical theatre

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/26858

Top of Page Top of Page

Sweetown

Synopsis:
Based on real events which took place in a NSW country town, Sweetown takes a harshly funny look at the issue of communitites facing up to their past.

Notes:
written by Melissa Reeves; music and lyrics by Ulli Birve, Andrew Donovan, Alex Hulse, Andrea O'shea and Lee Pickard. Winner of the 1993 Jill Blewitt Memorial Playwrights Award

1st Produced:
Red Shed Theatre, Adelaide, Sa     14 Nov 1991

Organisations:
Red Shed Company

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/13342

Top of Page Top of Page

Tough Girls

Synopsis:
Irene, a cop, is minding Ella, the wife of a crim suspected of killing a cop. Ella has turned state's evidence and gone into the witness protection program. Wanting revenge - or just wanting Ella back in the fold - is Vivian, her mother-in-law and grand dame of a notorious crime family. Just out of jail and sticking to Vivian like a barnacle to a rock is Lucy, a young heroin addict/petty criminal. the action takes place in a low-rent caravan park on the outskirts of the city. Tough Girls is a screw-ball musical comedy with rich but irreverent characterisation  fast-paced, slightly farcical, but with an occasional glimpse of the real world of cops, crims, heroin addicts and prisons.

Notes:
Music by Irene Vela; lyrics And book by Melissa Reeves

1st Produced:
Waterside Hall, Port Adelaide, Sa     04 Aug 2006

Organisations:
Deckchair Theatre, Adelaide

1st Published:
http://Australianplays.org/   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Musical theatre with Dramatic / comic elements 90 min

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/77148

Top of Page Top of Page

Who's Afraid Of the Working Class

Who's Afraid Of the Working Class
Melbourne at the end of the twentieth century. . . modern economic miracle or a society imploding with savage politics and despair? the characters in these plays have been crushed, frustrated, isolated, as well as battered by the grim consumerism of the 1990s. But they are survivors, resilient to the end. This collection presents a gritty portrayal of real life in an urban wasteland.

Notes:
written with Andrew Bovell/Patricia Cornelius/Melissa Reeves/Christos Tsiolkas And Irene Vela. Part of Melborne Tales

1st Produced:
Trades Hall, Carlton South, Vic     01 May 1998

Organisations:
Melbourne Workers Theatre

1st Published:
in Melborne Tales, Currency Press, Sydney,    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
One Act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/33092

Top of Page Top of Page