Silent Disco
Image: Badaidilaga Maftuh-Flynn and Gemma Scoble.
Photo: Bob Seary
New Theatre welcomes back contemporary Australian play, Silent Disco this season, which previously won the 2009 Griffin Award and 2012 AWGIE Award for Stage.
Examining the burgeoning love between a young Indigenous boy and a white girl in Sydney, Silent Disco’s portrayal of disenfranchised teens remains relevant in today’s landscape.
“It’s the story of two teenagers who fall in the love and the complications surrounding that,” says Lachlan Philpott, the playwright.
“The inspiration for the play was looking at the question of how technologies that connect us can also disconnect us. It’s a very moving play that is also very funny at times.”
Notably, the play has been adapted so that the lead male and his stepbrother are no longer Indigenous but of a broader non-Anglo background due to casting difficulties.
“It was a big decision but I think you have to make a decision about whether you want the work to go on so that new audiences can see it,” says Philpott.
“When it was performed in the United States, there wasn’t an option to cast Australian Indigenous actors in those roles but the play read well despite being slightly different. We’re still at a time where people who are not white are disadvantaged and disempowered.”
Mar 22-Apr 14. New Theatre, 542 King St, Newtown. $20-$35+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.newtheatre.org.au
By Emily Shen
