Angela Betzien's THE DARK ROOM Comes To Black Swan 5/1-5/17

In this chilling new psychological thriller, six unlikely characters converge at a run-down motel on the edge ofa military town.A boy waits for a stranger. Pregnant Emma waits for her husband, the country cop wasted after his best friend's wedding.

Anni, the government youthworker accompanied by a withdrawn fourteen year-old girl, waits for the dawn. As the night wearson each of them find themselves trapped in dark and dangerous territory, searching for a way out.The Dark Room is a gripping new work from the writer of the award-winning play Hoods, full ofhaunting memories and emotional suspense.

TICKET PRICES Standard: $25
Concession (Senior, Pensioner, Unemployed): $15
Students: (Full time students with photo ID):$15
Bookings: BOCS Ticketing, (08) 9484 1133, Groups 8+ (08) 9321 6831, www.bocsticketing.com.au (BOCS booking fees may apply)

The Dark Room Synopsis Six unlikely characters converge at a run-down motel on the edge of a military town.Anni, the government youth worker, is accompanied by Grace, a withdrawn fourteen year-old girlwhom Anni rescued from her hiding place under a house in the desert. Grace is shaken, hurt, andset on provocation, trying anything to crack Anni's professional façade.

As Grace pushes thelimits further and further, they wait for the dawn.Pregnant Emma and her husband Stephen, the country cop, return to the motel late at night. Shehas a secret. Stephen is wasted after his best friend's wedding and wants to head back out toparty. Emma doesn't want to be left alone in the motel, didn't want to go to the wedding andwants to escape this desolate town..Craig, the cop who shot a kid in the line of duty, has come to the motel to clear his head.

He isinterrupted when Joseph, a teenager walks out of the desert and knocks on his door. He hasbeen beaten and left in the wilderness. He knows things about Craig's past he shouldn't, movingtheir encounter into dangerous territory.The Dark Room weaves three separate narratives together through space and time, all takingplace in the same eerie motel. ABOUT ANGELA BETZIEN Angela Betzien won the Queensland Theatre Company/Comalco YoungPlaywright's Award for three consecutive years from 1994-1996.

Shewas Affiliate Writer at QTC in 1998 and Writer-in-Residence in 1999when she initiated the playwrights' group Playshop. The same year shewon the QTC/Courier Mail George Landen Dann award for The Postcard.

Queensland Theatre Company have produced two short plays, Dog Wins Lotto (as part of Oz Shorts in 1997) and Playboy of the Working Class(as part of Dirt in 2001), as well as the full-length The Orphanage Project(2003).In 2001, with the help of a Brisbane Lord Mayor's Performing ArtsFellowship, Betzien had a professional secondment with the Royal Court Young Writers Program in London. Her play The Kingswood Kids wasselected for a professional reading there and was later produced by La Boite at Brisbane'sEnergex Festival.

Other produced plays include The Suitcase and Princess of Suburbia. In 2006she toured her play Hoods, for which she won the AWGIE Award for Theatre for Young Audiences andthe Richard Wherett Award for Excellence in Playwriting . Betzien graduated from QueenslandUniversity of Technology with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Drama, in 1998 and is co-founder ofReal TV Project, a Queensland-based artistic team.

Black Swan State Theatre Company is Western Australia'sFlagship Theatre Company and one of Australia's foremosttheatre companies.Since its inception in 1991, Black Swan has earned both criticaland popular acclaim for its world premiere productions and highlydistinctive (re)interpretations of international theatre classics - allof which are infused with the unique culture of Western Australia.These have included such landmark productions as Bran NueDae, Sistergirl, Tourmaline, Corrugation Road (winner of theprestigious The Age Critics' Award), The Merry-Go-Round in theSea, Cloudstreet (Perth, Sydney, London and Dublin seasons)and The Odyssey.The Company has undertaken co-productions with all of Australia's leading theatre companies,including Company B, Playbox [Malthouse Theatre], State Theatre Company of South Australia,Sydney Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company,and also with local companies including deckchair theatre and Steamworks Arts Productions.Black Swan has also maintained a strong commitment to commissioning new work and in recentyears has premiered exciting new plays such as Ian Wilding's The Carnivores and Neil Gladwin'sRed Dog. New Artistic Director Kate Cherry, will lead Black Swan, as the designated ResidentCompany, into the new State Theatre Centre of Western Australia, to be completed in 2010.Under the direction of Artistic Director Kate Cherry, Black Swan is presenting seven mainhouseproductions in 2009: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion as part of the UWA PerthInternational Arts Festival, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, Yasmina Reza'scomedy God of Carnage, The Memory of Water, written by UK playwright Shelagh Stephenson,Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, Kate Mulvany's The Web and the musicalThe Sapphires by Tony Briggs. About The HotBed Ensemble In 2006 Black Swan introduced two new programs as part its youth arm:The HotBed Ensemble, an emerging artist development program, andThrills and Skills - skills development classes for performers and theatreartists.The HotBed Ensemble is Black Swan State Theatre Company'sprofessional development program for emerging Western Australian artists.It was initiated to provide a bridge to mainstage work for talented theatreartists making their mark in the independent theatre scene or recently graduated from training.In partnership with the RAC, the program includes exclusive training and mentoring opportunities,close contact with Black Swan artists, and creative opportunities in HotBed productions. There isalso the opportunity to be involved in play readings, secondments to Black Swan State TheatreCompany mainhouse productions and exclusive master classes with national and international The Dark Room visiting artists. As artists of the future, The HotBed group also keeps Black Swan in touch withnew ideas and trends in the performing arts.After the success of The Laramie Project in 2007 and Portraits of Modern Evil, The CaucasianChalk Circle in 2008, 2009 will see The HotBed Ensemble produce the World Premiere of a newAustralian work, The Dark Room by Angela Betzien, and pool (no water), a daring play bycontroversial playwright Mark Ravenhill (author of Shopping and F***ing). Media enquiries to: Nancy HackettMarketing & Development ManagerBlack Swan State Theatre CompanyBox 3232 Broadway PO, Crawley WA 60096 Broadway, Nedlands WA 6009

Tel: +61 8 6389 0311 (for direct line press 4 then 1 at voice prompts)Mob: +61 404 006 412Fax: +61 8 6389 0322

Web: www.bsstc.com.au

 

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