One of Australia’s favourite playwrights is back with a new play about Australian lives, loves and our very humanity. Helpmann Award-winning playwright, Hannie Rayson brings us the world premiere of Extinction – a unique drama about conservation and environmental awareness at the Heath Ledger Theatre from 19 September 2015.
Set on the windswept coast of southern Victoria, the death of an endangered tiger quoll is the critical backdrop to an Australian story about our very survival. Time is running out, both for the tiger quoll and for veterinarian Andy.
He believes strongly in preserving the environment and our natural resources – and he’s recently been diagnosed with a rare illness. When his lover, conservation biologist Dr Piper Ross, begins research paid for by the CEO of a mining company, Andy begins to question everything.
No one in this play is wicked. No one is entirely virtuous. What unites them all is the one urgent question: in the age of global warming, how are we to live? About passion, ethics and what it means to live with the shadow of death, our own and other species what does it mean for the human soul to be the spoilers and executions of the natural world. Do we care?
“Australia’s mammal extinction record is the worst in the world – over the last two hundred years 29 species have been lost and many more are battling for survival,” says Lizzie Corke, CEO Conservation Ecology Centre. “We have an important responsibility to change this around.”
“Hannie Rayson’s play, Extinction draws inspiration from our work at the Conservation Ecology Centre (CEC) in the heart of the Otway ranges on the wild, south coast of Victoria. The CEC has a passion for the conservation of the wildlife of the Otways, in particular, the Tiger Quoll (Dasyurus maculatus), which, until recently, was feared to be extinct in the region.”
Hannie Rayson is the author of fourteen plays. She has established a reputation for topical, complex dramas written with wit and insight. A graduate of Melbourne University and the Victorian College of the Arts, she has an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from La Trobe University.
Her plays include Mary, Room to Move, Hotel Sorrento, Falling From Grace, Scenes from a Separation (Co-written with Andrew Bovell), Competitive Tenderness, Life After George, Inheritance Two Brothers, The Glass Soldier and The Swimming Club.
She has been awarded two Australian Writers? Guild Awards, four Helpmann Awards, two NSW Premier?s Literary Awards and a Victorian Premier?s Literary Award as well as the Age Performing Arts Award and The Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award.
Director: Stuart Halusz Featuring: Hannah Day, Matt Dyktynski, Sarah McNeill, Myles Pollard Set & Costume Designer: Bryan Woltjen Lighting Designer: Trent Suidgeest Sound Designer/Composer: Ben Collins
Extinction
Heath Ledger Theatre – State Theatre Centre of WA
Season: 23 September – 4 October 2015 (previews: 19 – 22 September)
Bookings: 1300 795 012 or online at: www.ticketek.com.au
For more information, visit: www.bsstc.com.au for details.
Image: Myles Pollard and Hannah Day to feature in Extinction – photo by Robert Frith