AWAY Comes to Theatre Works in July

Grand theatricality, kitsch Australiana, larger-than-life characters, and kids we've all seen, known, and a lot of us once were - this July, Theatre Works brings one of Australia's most iconic works back to the stage.

Shakespearean in structure, but deeply personal in tone, Michael Gow's Away is a compelling glimpse into the lives of small families and their epic stories. Set in the Summer of 1967, as the Vietnam War rages, Away invites audiences to join three separate suburban families as they pack-up their prawns and head for the Gold Coast. All there to celebrate Christmas in their own special way until a magical tempest enmeshes them and they fall apart, fall together, and fall in love.

"Away is a complex work, but it's deeply relatable.", adds Director Steven Mitchell Wright.

"It's simultaneously a coming-of-age story and a grief play. It's political drama, while never being didactic. It's like an opera, a panto, and one of those really great episodes of Neighbours from the 90s had an orgy and made a play baby. The work for me is also very much about sacrifice. About what constitutes family, what constitutes a home, what makes up a community... and what we are willing to sacrifice for all of those things. I think there's something in that for people of all walks of life and all sides of politics."

A true masterpiece of Australian writing, Away is a love letter to Australians and how we endure our storms with love, laughter, and determination. Brought to you by the team behind Theatre Works' 2022 hit MEDEA: Out of the Mouths of Babes and with award-winning Director Steven Mitchell Wright at the helm, this season promises theatre goers a wonderfully heightened, intergenerational, time-bending production of a much-loved Australian classic.

One of Australia's longest-running independent theatres, Theatre Works is constantly reinvigorating and reimagining the sector by providing a hotbed for artist and audience development. Away is playing as a part of the newly minted 2023 "By Theatre Works" programming stream. Other works produced in-house as part of this stream include Pear-Shaped by Miranda Middleton and Ziggy Resnick, MOTH by Declan Greene, and In the Club by Patricia Cornelius.

Written by Michael Gow
Directed by Steven Mitchell Wright
Lighting Design by Ben Hughes
Composition and Sound Design by Rachel Lewindon
Performed by Iopu Auva’a, Rupert Bevan, Linda Cookson, Stefanie Falasca, Eleanor Howlett, Stephen Tall, Cait Spiker and Justin Hosking
Produced by Belle Hansen

8 - 22 July, 2023
Tues - Sat 7:30pm, Tues - Fri 11am, Sun 5pm (16 July Only)
Tickets: $50 Full, $42 Concession, $28 Preview, $20 Mob Tix and 20 at $20 (+ booking fee)
Bookings: (03) 9534 3388 or online www.theatreworks.org.au/2023/away
Venue: Theatre Works - 14 Acland Street, St Kilda
www.theatreworks.org.au