A cautionary tale about our rapidly changing world where technology has pushed us beyond our moral compass and is rapidly breaking down societal norms, Darlinghurst Theatre Company presents Julian Larnach’s In Real Life at the Eternity Playhouse in a world premiere season from 20 September 2017.
With the already obsessive relationship we have with technology, mankind’s most pressing existential crisis is already on our doorstep. People, everywhere, clutch a device, as if it were an extension of themselves in a never ending quest for news, popularity, love and most of all connection. Julian Larnach’s In Real Life offers an unnerving portrait of our digital lives.
In the not too distant future, Theresa is the CEO of a global digital company and inventor of the Drum, the world’s most popular personal device. One evening she argues with her daughter who walks out of their secluded holiday retreat and vanishes without a trace. Theresa yearns to find her daughter and for answers behind her disappearance. Desperate to reconnect, she attempts to use technology to bridge the gap between the digital world and real life.
Directed by Luke Rogers (Blink, The Last Five Years), and featuring Anni Finsterer (Teenage Kicks, Parramatta Girls) and Elizabeth Nabben (The Rover, Othello), In Real Life explores and questions the impact of new technologies on human relationships, many of which are already upon us and inevitable, such as our digital footprint, artificial intelligence, the digital afterlife and cloning.
Julian Larnach is a Sydney-based playwright whose works include the world-premiere productions of Folk Song for Outback Theatre for Young People (2017) and In Real Life for Darlinghurst Theatre Company (2017). The commissioned play, Beneath an Oxbow Lake, premiered in Griffith (2015), before a sellout regional tour that finished at ATYP. His monologue Something I Prepared Earlier was produced for the 2014 season of ATYP’s Voices Project, BITE ME, and published with Currency Press.
Julian was Resident Playwright at the Australian Theatre for Young People in 2015, and an Affiliate Writer for Griffin Theatre Company in 2013. In 2014, he was awarded the inaugural EMERGE: Riverina Playwrights Commission, and has been shortlisted for the Griffin Award for New Australian Playwriting, the Edward Albee Scholarship and the PWA Re-Gen Seed Commission.
Julian has completed creative developments for new works with Sydney Dance Company, Playwriting Australia and Griffin Theatre Company, as well as dramaturgical secondments with Belvoir and Melbourne Theatre Company. He is currently a member of the inaugural Sydney Theatre Company’s Emerging Writers Group.
Director: Luke Rogers Featuring: Anni Finsterer, Elizabeth Nabben Production Designer: Georgia Hopkins Lighting Designer: Sian James-Holland Sound Designer and Composition: James Brown Stage Manager: Ryan Tate Playwright: Julian Larnach
In Real Life
Eternity Playhouse, 39 Burton Street, Darlinghurst
Season: 209 September – 15 October 2017 (previews: 15 – 17 September)
Information and Bookings: www.darlinghursttheatre.com
Image: courtesy of Darlinghurst Theatre Company