Stop Girl

From journalist, author and eight-time Walkley Award finalist Sally Sara, Belvoir will debut the riveting new play, Stop Girl in the Upstairs Theatre this March.

In this play about the front lines of normal life, Suzie is a foreign correspondent transitioning home to Sydney from a war-torn Afghanistan. She’s devoted the best years of her life to reporting from dangerous frontlines all over the world.

But even the most resilient foreign correspondents need to come home one day. What happened to Australia while she was away? And what happened to her? In Sara’s semi-autobiographical theatrical debut, the storyteller becomes the story, drawing on some of her own experiences in the field.

As a former foreign correspondent with the ABC, Sara reported from more than 30 countries, including Iraq, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe, often working under difficult conditions with few resources.

She was the first female correspondent to be appointed to the ABC’s Johannesburg, New Delhi and Kabul bureaus, and is currently presenter of ABC current affairs program The World Today.

Exploring the strength and resilience of women through their career and family life, Stop Girl questions what it means to have freedom, the darkness of trauma and how sometimes ordinariness is the hardest thing of all.

“Bringing the play to the stage at Belvoir is a dream come true – I’ve loved theatre my whole life,” said Sally Sara. “I’m excited and nervous, and I can’t wait. It’s honour to be given the opportunity.”

Directed by Anne-Louise Sarks (An Enemy of the People, Medea, Jasper Jones), Sheridan Harbridge (The Sugar House, Griffin Theatre Company’s Prima Facie) shines as foreign correspondent Suzie.

She is joined by an impeccable cast of Deborah Galanos (Griffin Theatre Company’s Wicked Sisters, State Theatre Company South Australia’s The Gods of Strangers), Amber McMahon (Dance Nation, Angels in America), and Mansoor Noor (Kings Cross Theatre’s Omar+Dawn, ABC’s Cleverman).

“Stop Girl is a ratbaggy, wise play by a writer who’s seen it all firsthand, and has learnt how to ask the pointed questions,” said Belvoir Artistic Director, Eamon Flack. “I’m sure everyone’s familiar with Sally from her work at the ABC.”

“She’s lived more than most of us would if we had several lifetimes. And her play is a remarkable debut. It’s about our complicated world, and it’s full of heart.”