A short, sharp play about language, prejudice and the power of stories, Gavin Roach presents, as part of the 2022 Melbourne Fringe, Thomas Eccleshare’s Heather at the Meat Market – Stables, this October.
Brilliantly imaginative and theatrically original, Heather tells the story of a reclusive children’s writer becomes wildly successful. Her books are treasured across the country.
Her public are desperate to know just who is behind the stories. But as a troubling narrative begins to unfold and her constantly irrational excuses, readers begin to ask, what is she so afraid of?
If you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, does it make any more sense to judge a book by its author?
As a playwright Thomas has won the Verity Bargate Award, the Catherine Johnson Award and a Fringe First Award. His work has been performed extensively across the world and his first collection of plays is published by Oberon / Bloomsbury.
His most recent play, Instructions for Correct Assembly opened at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court in a production directed by Hamish Pirie, starring Jane Horrocks and Mark Bonnar.
Thomas’ first television show, Witness Number Three (Story Films), a four-part drama for Channel 5, will be broadcast in 2022. He is currently making a pilot for Sky, directed by Peter Capaldi, as well as writing an episode of a forthcoming Apple TV show.
Thomas is co-artistic director of the visual theatre company Dancing Brick, with whom he has toured nationally and internationally. Dancing Brick has been nominated for two Total Theatre Awards and won the prestigious Arches Brick Award.
Their next show, an adaptation of the Jaques Tati classic film PLAYTIME will premiere at the Royal and Derngate Theatre, Northampton, in 2022.
“What Heather does very well is to go beyond simply offering ‘a twist’, but to challenge audience assumptions about who gets to tell stories.” – Time Out
Director: Gavin Roach | Performers: Michelle Perera, Kristina Benton | Sound Designer: Sam Porter | Lighting Designer: Spencer Herd | Stage Manager: Andrew Hughes
Heather
Meat Market – Stables, 5 Blackwood Street, North Melbourne
Season continues to 22 October 2022
Information and Bookings: www.melbournefringe.com.au
Image: Michelle Perera and Kristina Benton (supplied)