Presented by The Ninth Floor Productions, Simon Longman’s hilarious, poignant tragicomedy MILKED will make its Australian premiere at fortyfivedownstairs this March.
Acclaimed director Iain Sinclair (The View From The Bridge, Berlin) directs Laurence Boxhall (The Mousetrap 70th Anniversary Tour, Shakespeare In Love) and William McKenna (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Admissions) as Snowy and Paul respectively, two childhood friends in rural Herefordshire trying to find their meaning in life as the scales of fate tip slowly out of their favour.
Like the grass-stained lovechild of Withnail and I and The Banshees of Inisherin, MILKED bristles with energy while exploring friendship, purpose, loneliness, and rural-angst.
Laugh-out-loud funny and deeply moving, Longman’s play is for anyone who has ever felt that time is unfairly passing them by, or wondered why it seems that everyone else is doing so much better in life.
“When Laurence Boxhall introduced me to Simon Longman I was deeply captivated by his ability to capture a special quality of restless uncertainty in early adulthood as it is experienced now,” said director Iain Sinclair.
“It’s a new kind of hell out there for young adults and in this case especially so for young men living away from the metropolitan centre in the middle of the meaning crisis. This play deftly captures it.”
“This play is a welcome return to what contemporary playwriting does best, exploring uncertainty and paradox. It feels real and surreal at the same time, hilarious and sad, frustrating and satisfying and foolish but serious.”
“I find it profoundly moving and tender with a deep sense of the kind of dark existential comedy you might discover in Beckett, Pinter or even The Goons.”
“Just like Beckett and Pinter’s work, this is the kind of play that can only function with top flight actors capable of embracing paradox and I have been blessed with two of the country’s most match fit in William McKenna and Laurence Boxhall,” said Sinclair.
The creative team includes fifteen-time Green Room Award nominee and five-time winner Richard Vabre (Lighting Design), along with Kirsty O’Connor (Assistant Director), Louisa Fitzgerald (Set and Costume Design) and Lyndall Grant (Fight Choreographer).
Simon Longman is an award-winning playwright from the UK. In addition to Milked, his plays include Patient Light, Island Town, Gundog, Rails, White Sky, Sparks and (Circle Dreams Around) The Terrible, Terrible Past. His work has been translated and produced internationally.
“Funny, truthful and tightly-written, Milked is an understated piece of theatre that speaks loudly.” – British Theatre Guide (UK)
MILKED
fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Season: 1 – 10 March 2024 (previews: 28 & 29 February)
Information and bookings: www.fortyfivedownstairs.com
Image: William McKenna and Laurence Boxhall – photo by Kirsty O’Connor