FEARLESS

Milk Crate Theatre’s latest production titled Fearless is its most ambitious yet. Starting in 2000 as a collaboration between Darlinghurst Theatre, South Sydney Council and Wesley Mission, Milk Crate Theatre Company has emerged as an independent theatrical force which engages with homeless and disenfranchised members of society through performance, and is now teaming up with Carriageworks for the first time.

Fearless is about delving deeply into the issue of loneliness and isolation particularly from the perspective of those on the fringes of society. I caught up with playwright and director Mirra Todd. “At its heart, this is a story of our intrinsic humanity, of our deepest and most primal selves, sometimes lost, sometimes yearning, but always striving to understand our place in a fractured world.”

The piece is group devised and then firmed up by Todd who structures the material into script and song along with musical director Daryl Wallis. And while many of the ensemble are performers who have themselves experienced marginalisation and homelessness, it also includes professional performers such as Christa Hughes who have been engaged to play key roles in the production.

Carriageworks director Lisa Havilah says, “Fearless is an authentic, powerful production which has the rare quality of being transformative for both performers and audiences.” And that is certainly a good reason to venture out to the theatre.

Sep 13-22, Carriageworks, ­ 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh, $25-25, carriageworks.com.au