MOTHER PLAY

About the show

The bonds of love are tested in this expansive yet intimate drama rich with humour and wit, starring film, theatre and television legend Sigrid Thornton, alongside Yael Stone, Ash Flanders and directed by Lee Lewis. Careening through the twentieth century – from the Muzak-drenched 60s through the sexual revolution, disco era, and New Age movements that followed – Mother Play charts the personal upheavals of one family trying to find a place for themselves amid the slings and arrows of a changing world. It’s 1962 and Martha and Carl are unpacking. Again. Since their deadbeat dad ditched them and stole the family’s savings, they’ve been following their fierce mother Phyllis from apartment to apartment. Cockroaches, landlords and snooty neighbours be damned. Phyllis is determined to live life on her terms. They’re moving on up. Mother Play is a gift for actors, allowing them to muster the full range of human emotion in service of a story that cannot fail to stir the heart. Its 2024 Broadway production earned four Tony nominations and won two Drama Desk Awards and an Outer Critics Circle Award. It’s time for Melbourne audiences to be treated to the Australian premiere of this lustrous gem of contemporary theatre.