From the award winning playwright and writer of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and Showtime’s Masters of Sex, Darlinghurst Theatre Company presents the Australian premiere of Bathsheba Doran’s The Mystery of Love & Sex at the Eternity Playhouse from 14 February as part of the 2017 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival.
Deep in the American South, Charlotte and Jonny have been best friends since they were nine. She’s Jewish, he’s Christian, he’s black, she’s white. Their differences intensify their connection until sexual desire complicates everything in surprising, compulsive ways. An unexpected love story about where souls meet and the consequences of growing up.
The Mystery of Love and Sex is a tender and funny story about love in all its forms, and that blurry space between friendship, romance and erotic desire. It is also about families; the family we are born into and the family we create. It’s about our ability to keep secrets and the challenges and rewards of finding your own path.
Directed by leading Sydney-based director Anthony Skuse, The Mystery of Love and Sex features a wonderful cast including Deborah Galanos (Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?), Thuso Lekwape (Prize Fighter), Nicholas Papademetriou (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) and Contessa Treffone (Lord of the Flies).
“I am thrilled to be working on the play in the context of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras especially when the national conversation about marriage equality has be stalled by a lack of political will,” says Director, Anthony Skuse. “To be doing a play about love, sexuality, gay marriage and families by a female playwright that champions a woman’s story is indeed something to celebrate.”
Bathsheba Doran grew up in London and studied at Cambridge University. Her first job as a professional writer was comedy sketch writing for the BBC2 show Bruiser. Doran worked for several years as a comedy writer, writing for shows like Smack the Pony and TV to Go.
In 2000, she moved to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship and received her Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University in 2003, and went on to become a playwriting fellow at The Juilliard School. Doran’s work has been staged by the O’Neill Playwriting Center, Lincoln Center, Manhattan Theatre Club and Sundance Theatre Lab, among others. Doran’s Awards include the 2013 Berwin Lee Playwright Award, and 2009 Helen Merrill Playwriting Award.
Doran was nominated for a 2012 Writers Guild Award for her work on the Martin Scorsese/HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2011). She also wrote episodes for NBC show Smash (2013), and was writer and co-producer of season 2 of the Showtime’s Masters of Sex (2014). She lives with her wife and two children in New York City.
“Bathsheba Doran has written a play with such compassion and wry wisdom that I emerged from the theater into yet another frigid day feeling warmed from within.” – The New York Times
Darlinghurst Theatre Company are very happy that their longstanding, 20-year strong commitment to the gay community and the Mardi Gras Festival continues in 2017 with a piece that will celebrate and speak to both the lesbian and gay audience.
Director: Anthony Skuse Featuring: Deborah Galanos, Thuso Lekwape, Nicholas Papademetriou, Contessa Treffone Production Designer: Emma Vine Lighting Designer: Verity Hampson Sound Designer: Alistair Wallace Stage Manager: Rebecca Poulter Voice Coach: Linda Nicholls-Gidley
The Mystery of Love & Sex
Eternity Playhouse, 39 Burton Street, Darlinghurst
Season: 14 February – 12 March 2017 (previews: 10 – 12 February)
Information and Bookings: www.darlinghursttheatre.com
Image: courtesy of Darlinghurst Theatre Company