The Lab Report / a showcase
PROGRAM - -
3:00 PM Saturday 12th December
Smoke & Glass By Margaret Thanos, Dir. Tasnim Hossain
With: Arkia Ashraf, Margarita Gershkovich, Rachel Seeto
Eleni, a big-city woman, has chosen to come and live in a firewatch tower in the middle of the forest. She’s sure someone has followed her, dragging the ghosts of her past life here into her new one. She lives alone in the tower, with only a man on the other end of the radio to keep her company. That is until she loses contact with the world outside and a fire, a 17 year old girl and a twisted reality begins to take hold.
Smoke and Glass explores what true isolation really means, and how once calculated choice can ruin somebody else’s life.
4:30 PM Saturday 12th December
Let Me Know If You Feel Something By Amber Spooner Dir. Tasnim Hossain
With: Laneikka Denne, Jeremy Lowrencev
Sixteen year old Emma and Joseph are navigating a confusing and uncertain first relationship all while trying to live up to the standards society set for them. Both present an unfailing confidence that stops them from asking the questions they don’t have the answers to. Emma finds herself questioning how things are really meant to be while Joseph feels the weight of responsibility his image provides. Consumed by their own feelings of guilt and pressure causes an act of violence they will never be able to take back. Told as mixture of monologue and duologue this story explores what we learn and what we chose to ignore.
6:00 PM Saturday 12th December
See What Sticks By Declan Coyle Dir. Saro Lusty-Cavallari
With: Will Bartolo, Kevin Batliwala, Pip Edwards, Lulu Howes
Tied down by the social etiquette of attending your employer’s housewarming, Zinnie and Omar brace themselves for Harriet and Rupert’s Grand Designed Monstrosity.
The building is a ‘timeless’ modern piece of architecture however, a muddy footprint on the stained-glass window forces the Andersons to postpone their perfect housewarming. Again. And again and again, and again as the seemingly invincible mark sends them into a downwards spiral forcing them to question every choice they’ve made.
7:30 PM Saturday 12th December
Various Characters By Sime Knezevic Dir. Saro Lusty-Cavallari
With: Jane Angharad, Nicola Bowman, Kevin Batliwala, Jeremi Campese, Angus Evans, Emma Kew
The beginnings of adulthood. A new business to launch. The distracting heart of first love. The adventure of protest. The future is bright and exciting. It’s supposed to be like this.
Opinions compete. Death is random. People expect more from their neighbour. We have one common enemy. We need to belong to each other. There’s no time to waste.
Somewhere in the roundabout of south-west Sydney... it’s the year 2003. Residents of a small city council seek community and harmony on matters of local significance. A world of young citizens demand their older leaders to change course on matters of international significance. A different time altogether.
Various Characters is a play about the fast and slow of loss and grief and optimism. It’s about the first time you realise the future is uncertain.
3:00 PM Sunday 13th December
Square One By Rebecca Blake Dir. Rachel Chant
With: Julia Billington, Emma Kew
Gemma makes a promise to her ex-girlfriend to stay sober for 6 months whilst she settles back in her home town. Stubbornly determined to keep to her word, she struggles to resettle. With a looming hens night for her newly out cousin and Matt from Bank of Australia keen to help her make the switch, it feels like everyone has their shit together. Except her.
Her coping mechanism is to call and leave ridiculously long voicemails to her ex in an attempt to uncover where it all went wrong. Because isn’t that the healthy way to process your emotions?
Square One is about grief, addiction and finding your people. Told through voicemails.
4:30 PM Sunday 13th December
Oblivion by Alex Travers Dir. Saro Lusty-Cavallari
With: Pip Edwards, Shane Russon
A daughter dances in a sequin dance costume.
A mother threads time.
A father forgets.
As memory collides with fragmented narrative in a world rendered by empty promise, a husband and wife play a lullaby on loop; tantalisingly close to finding their daughter and losing themselves. Set somewhere between the 1970s and now, Oblivion plays an uncanny host to a tiny kingdom of marital habit, family ties and love at every cost.
6:00 PM Sunday 13th December
Sweet Darling Baby Boy by Jasper Lee-Lindsay Dir. Saro Lusty-Cavallari
With: Zoe Crawford, Angus Evans, Cameron Hutt, Susan Jordan, Madeleine Stedman
Audrey has given up and is ready to drink away her days when her eldest son, Nick, kills himself. She wants to commemorate him by putting him on her community’s Honour Wall. But Nick wasn’t exactly an upstanding citizen, and with the town's pride and reputation in the middle of a revamping, Audrey might be bringing something to the surface they would rather forget.
Through a dark satirical lense aimed at suburban Australian culture,Sweet Darling Baby Boy examines how we deal with tough topics, and tackles the conflict between emotional nuance and social acceptability.
7:30 PM Sunday 13th December
Midnight by Eric Jiang Dir. Saro Lusty-Cavallari
With: Jeremi Campese, Sean Foster, Idam Sondhi, Tiffany Wong
Everyone knows when there's a lull in the relationship it's time to spy on the neighbours. Just know that they're spying back. As Nina gets more and more obsessed, she soon finds herself entangled in a mysterious research experiment called Midnight. Apparently it's all the rage, but where's the exit? Will she ever escape Midnight? And will she ever get her tupper-ware back from the neighbours?
Following on from an open call out earlier in the year, the following Laboratory participants were announced:
Margaret Thanos - Declan Coyle - Caitlin Doyle Marwick - Eric Jiang - ŠIME KNEŽEVIĆ - Jasper Lee Lindsay - Alex Travers - Rebecca Blake - Amber Spooner
since May 2020 writers have participated in weekly online meetings with additional dramaturgical support from the program’s leader Saro Lusty-Cavallari. “These meetings are an opportunity to share work, ask for help and support each other as we attempt to develop our practice from within the confines of our own home”
The program culminates in a showcase of work
OPPORTUNITY
bAKEHOUSE and Montague Basement are on the lookout for actors to participate in a series of developments and public showings for the new works created by participants in The Laboratory program. We will be working on each script with two workshops across the week of 7-11 December with public showings that weekend. This is a great opportunity to get back into a rehearsal room and perform before an audience again after the mess that has been 2020. If you're interested in participating please send a CV to montaguebasement@gmail.com with the subject line "LAB ACTOR" and we'll get in touch if an appropriate opportunity arises.
Please note that if you have already submitted to our callout for actors for workshop you are still under consideration.
Over the last few years there has been an explosion of new work across Sydney’s independent stages. As the quality and quantity of the sector grows more and more original voices are beginning their careers at independent venues like KXT, where they benefit from the support of a dedicated and local artistic community. Not only is the creation of this work absolutely vital in it’s own right; in creating an original, local and contemporary voice for our theatre but it also serves as a launchpad for the next generation of major playwrights. Mainstage companies simply do not have the space available to program and support the amount of writing talent that is emerging in Sydney and the independent sector is vital in nurturing this talent. However the lean and streamlined workflow of an independent production can be an unforgiving process for emerging artists, with little formal support between an idea and a first presentation.
This is why bAKEHOUSE and Montague Basement are teaming up to run the The Laboratory, a writer’s circle program for developing work, peer networking and dramaturgical support. The Laboratory seeks to mirror many of the opportunities provided by mainstage programs and drama schools but with a focus on the particular demands of the independent sector as well as nurturing the wonderful artists that finds themselves on the out of these programs.