New Theatre's annual New Directions season will this year showcase the best of contemporary writing with three plays from Australia, and one each from Poland and Mexico.

Week One: 22 – 25 July

Horrific Acts for Charity

by Ben Ellis

World Premiere
Ben Ellis’ very funny satire challenges us to question the motives behind altruism. What it is about giving to the starving third world or that sad little boy dying of cancer that makes us feel so warm and fuzzy? As the play opens, another tsunami has devastated a poverty-ridden country and before the Red Cross can make it to the disaster area, a benefit concert is being planned and a bidding war over headline acts is in full swing

“He’s [Ellis] got a fantastic tone, wonderfully satiric, very intelligent, a fierce sort of mind.” - Robyn Nevin

By arrangement with The Cameron Creswell Agency

Director  James Beach
Cast   Andrew Duvall, Brendan Maclean, Oleg Pupovac, Katrina Rautenberg, Pearl Tan, Deborah Thomson and Helen Tonkin

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Week Two: 29 July – 1 August
A DOUBLE BILL

On Insomnia and Midnight

by Edgar Chias
translated by David Johnston

Australian Premiere
In an anonymous Mexican hotel a series of ritualistic encounters between an older European man and a young South American maid develop into a provocative and ambiguous game of power and obsession. A gripping and tense exposé of a potentially fatal encounter unfolds as the unnamed man coaxes the woman into revealing the most intimate details of her sexual awakening,

“Like a Last Tango in Paris scripted by Nabokov … unnerving and erotically charged” - Village Voice

Director  Alexandra Byron
Cast   Nastassja Djalog and Barry French

Victor and Sass

by Kathleen Cantarella

Sydney Premiere
Sass believed the strength of the bond with her brother Victor would shield them from the brutality of their childhood.  Then he abandoned her.  Now an alcoholic who’s lost all ability to love, she is lonely and unfulfilled. So when Victor returns to try to reclaim their relationship, the siblings embark on an intensely emotional journey, revisiting and confronting their relationship through a series of intriguing twists and turns. Part mystery, part love story, this is an honest and compassionate study of love, taboos, and human frailty.

“A dark, disturbing two-hander with punchy, sharp dialogue. You never know who to like or who to side for.” - Lowdown

Director  Jonathan Wald
Cast   Ben Brock and Jeneffa Soldatic

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Week Three: 5 – 8 August

A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians

by Dorota Maslowska
translated by Lisa Goldman and Paul Sirett

Australian Premiere

Meet Dzina and Parcha. They're the hitchhikers from hell. She's a pregnant, glue-sniffing wacko. He's an intimidating motor-mouthed hoon. But all is not as it first seems.  A fast-paced road-trip on black ice, laced with dark, ironic humour, this debut play from one of Poland's brightest young literary talents plunges into the chaos of a crumbling post-Communist society to illuminate the dangers of being different.

“Hunter S Thompson meets the Sex Pistols … a feverish mix of hippie and punk, vulgarity and poetry, the modern and the post-modern … an exciting work that screams of the now” - Alex Sierz

"This play is sheer, bloody brilliance... riveting performances from a superb ensemble cast... It has been the best work I've seen all year" - Same Same review

By arrangement with Agencja Literacka Syndykat Autorow, Julia Tyrrell Management and Independent Talent Group

Director  Alice Livingstone
Cast   Mairead Berne, John Keightley, Pete Nettell, Neil Phipps, Sandy Velini and Cheryl Ward

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Week Four: 12 – 15 August

Mrs Petrov’s Shoe

by Noëlle Janaczewska

Sydney Premiere
Anna Lubansky shoots to prominence with her first novel, the emotional narrative of a nine-year-old girl's struggle to reconcile her Australian reality with her parents' Central European heritage, set in the Cold War era of the early 1960s. Promoted as heavily autobiographical, the book garners a harvest of awards and Anna's multicultural star is shining brightly in the literary firmament—until the real fiction is uncovered, and Anna Lubansky is revealed to be the very non-European Ann Loxton.

"Mrs Petrov's Shoe is as much about cultural identity as it is about literary scandal and it is very funny." – Melbourne Stage Online, 2006

By arrangement with The Cameron Creswell Agency

Director  Mackenzie Steele
Cast   Will Carter, Lindsey Chapman, Sonia de Domeneghi, Will Edwards, Jeneffa Soldatic and Paul Treacy

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