Flight Paths
Image: Photo: Robert Catto

Flight Paths is a passionate coming of age story of international intrigue and welfare that connects the UK, Africa and Australia.

Written by award winning Australian playwright Julian Larnach, this is a very human story, a very global story that is beautiful, philosophical, interesting, diverse and dynamic. National Theatre of Parramatta presents the premiere production of Flight Paths, at Riverside Theatres, Parramatta, directed by Anthea Williams, who this year won the Best Director, at the Sydney Theatre Awards.

Flight Paths is about two young Australian women, the brilliant, 18-year-old Luisa, (Ebony Vagulans) who is on an academic scholarship, and 28-year-old Emily, (Airlie Dodds) a charity worker who lives in Nairobi. It is set in the world’s most prestigious university, Oxford, in England, and Kibera, in Nairobi, Kenya, the world’s largest slum. Both women are trying to decide where their place in the world is, how they can make the world a better place, and they try to figure out the machinations of power in the world and how they fit within them. The set is reflective of both the cities and seen from a bird’s eye view. Flight Paths looks at the similarities between the two places as much as the differences.

Anthea Williams, the play’s director talks about some of the interesting topics covered in Flight Paths.

“The Oxford part of the play is set throughout the university during O-Week and is quite studenty. The Nairobi part teaches you a lot about the charity industry, in all its complexities. Louisa is a science student, interested in birds and migration patterns, in particular, starlings. Sometimes they fall out of the sky and cause massive problems, and no one knows why it happens.“

The play also deals with issues like mobility, and who gets to travel around the world; about people doing aid projects, and who chooses the projects; on the huge differences between people in the world and it looks at class in terms of privilege and wealth.

Mar 16-24. Riverside Theatres, Corner of Church and Market Streets, Parramatta. $44-$49+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.riversideparramatta.com.au or Ph: (02) 8839 3399

By Mel Somerville.

You May Also Like

Comments are closed.