The Boy at the Edge of Everything

MTC The Boy at the Edge of EverythingTaking audiences young and old on an extraordinary journey of imagination and friendship, Melbourne Theatre Company presents Finegan Kruckemeyer’s The Boy at the Edge of Everything at the Southbank Theatre from 24 September 2015.

Simon Ives keeps to the schedule. Not just the school schedule with new stuff to learn coming at him all day, but everything else packed into his young life: music lessons, sports practice, clubs, activities and homework. It’s full on and wouldn’t it be great just to find time to think?

Meanwhile, way out in space, another boy, with nothing to do that hasn’t already been done, sits bored and lonely in the intergalactic quiet. Opposite lives on opposite sides of the cosmos. It would be beyond incredible if they ever met, but one day, completely unscheduled, that’s exactly what happens.

Commissioned by New York’s Trusty Sidekick Theater Company and presented as a play-in-progress at New Visions New Voices at The Kennedy Center, The Boy at the Edge of Everything had its world premiere in March 2014 as a co-production with the Seattle Children’s Theater, playing to rave reviews and followed by a string of US performances.

“This play was first imagined beneath a mountain in Tasmania, discussed with director Jonathan over two rich years, buoyed by support from organisations in four US states, made tangible by the amazing production team at Seattle Children’s Theatre, and now culturally reimagined by MTC on home shores,” says playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer.

“I look forward to MTC ’s realising of interstellar surrealism, and domestic familiarity – a story about a family we can know and a voyage we can only imagine, allowing a young audience both the creative permission and emotional pathos it deserves.”

Internationally acclaimed writer Finegan Kruckemeyer’s work has toured the world, with 74 commissioned plays performed in five continents and translated into five languages. His lyrical script Boats was awarded the 2013 Shanghai International Children’s Festival Award for Most Excellent Show.

In 2012 Kruckemeyer won the Helpmann Award for Children’s Theatre and in 2011 was the inaugural recipient of the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship. His writing credits include The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly, The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy, Escape From Peligro Island and This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing, for which he won the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award.

Peter Houghton is an award winning Australian actor, writer and director. He has won multiple Green Room Awards for directing, acting and writing and produced a critically acclaimed trilogy of solo shows; The Pitch, The China Incident and The Colours, all of which he wrote.

His directing work includes Noises Off for Marriner Theatres; True Minds, The Recruit, Hinterland and Art and Soul for MTC; Footprints on Water for Griffin Theatre; No Man’s Island for the Melbourne Festival; Svetlana in Slingbacks, God’s Last Acre and The China Incident for Playbox/Malthouse; Day One a Hotel Evening for Black Swan.

“It is impossible not to laugh out loud. This is one not to be missed.” Seattle’s Child Magazine

Director: Peter Houghton  Cast: Felix Berger-O’Neil, Matt Furlani, Emily Goddard, Sebastian Lamour  Set & Costume Designer: Andrew Bailey  Lighting Designer: Lisa Mibus  Composer & Sound Designer: Richard Vabre

The Boy at the Edge of Everything
The Lawler – Southbank Theatre, Southbank Boulevard, Southbank
Season: 24 September – 9 October 2015 (preview: 23 September)
Bookings: (03) 8688 0800 or online at: www.mtc.com.au

For more information, visit: www.mtc.com.au for details.

Image: The Boy at the Edge of Everything (supplied)