Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre is excited to welcome back award-winning Melbourne-based theatre director Gary Abrahams (Yentl – Arts Centre Melbourne; Admissions – Melbourne Theatre Company) for a return season of the sell-out production, Iphigenia in Splott, this September.
Last staged in 2021, the play by Gary Owen and starring Jessica Clarke saw Red Stitch pick up three Green Room Awards in 2022 for Most Outstanding Production, Most Outstanding Direction (Gary Abrahams), and Most Outstanding Performance (Jessica Clarke), along with two nominations for Most Outstanding Costume Design (Jacob Battista and Sophie Woodward) and Most Outstanding Set Design (Jacob Battista and Sophie Woodward).
Ensemble member, Jessica Clarke, will once again deliver a powerful and provocative solo performance as Effie, who hails from the Welsh working-class district of Splott. Stumbling down Clifton Street at 11:30 a.m., drunk, Effie is the kind of girl you’d avoid eye contact with, silently passing judgment.
People think they know Effie, but they don’t know the half of it. Her life spirals through a mess of drinking, drugs and drama every night, and a hangover worse than death the next day. Until one night, she is given the chance to be something more.
Listed as one of The Guardian’s 50 best theatre shows of the 21st century and Winner of Best Play at the UK Theatre Awards (2015), this powerful new adaptation of the enduring Greek myth drives home the high price people pay for society’s shortcomings.
Bringing it back to the stage for those who missed it, this is a second chance to see the “visceral tour de force” (The Age) that is Jessica Clarke in her returning role and witness Melbourne theatre at its best.
“Jessica Clarke gives us a brilliant performance, by turns precise, whimsical, childlike, shocking, and moving.” – Stage Whispers
Director: Gary Abrahams | Starring: Jessica Clarke | Set and Costume Design: Jacob Battista, Sophie Woodward | Lighting Design: Rachel Burke | Composition & Sound Design: Daniel Nixon | Dialect Coach: Matt Furlani | Assistant Lighting Design: Spencer Herd | Stage Manager: Natasha Marich
Iphigenia in Splott
Red Stitch Theatre, Rear 2 Chapel Street, St Kilda East
Season: 3 – 22 September 2024
Information and Bookings: www.redstitch.net
Image: Jessica Clarke stars in the return season of Iphigenia in Splott – photo by James Reiser