Heart Street Theater Company Announces TRUCK STOP

Heart Street Theater Company will present acclaimed Australian play 'Truck Stop' by Lachlan Philpott for two nights only on August 1st and 2nd, 2019.

Director and actor Laura Boyd said, 'while this is a uniquely Australian play in regards to colloquialisms and humour, the central issues of the text, namely the effects of hyper-sexualisation in digital media on young women and their sense of self-worth in the eyes of men, transcend the Australian landscape. All of us remember the minefield that was our teenage years - now imagine trying to navigate those years without the ability to disconnect from the constant pressures of social media and online content. The desire to control your narrative as a young woman while still being perceived as "likeable" and "pretty" is particularly fraught in this day and age when young people are constantly consuming content that tells them they will never be thin enough, pretty enough or white enough to be considered truly worthy. Above all, I hope that audiences will see this show and recall the heartache of feeling left out and desperately uncomfortable in one's skin at this age, a feeling I believe crosses cultural borders".

Truck Stop tells the story of Sam, Kelly and Aisha, three teens in Sydney's impoverished western suburbs. Sam and Kelly, BFF's since age 6, shared everything: leotards, earphones...and most recently, truck drivers. The girls aren't just best friends; they're "the skanks": a girl gang like the Pussycat Dolls, "only hotter - much effing hotter". But these days, they don't speak at all. Aisha, a recent immigrant from Bangalore and the newest member of "the skanks", tries to piece together the events that led to the truck stop, while also trying to find her footing in a place that everyone else seems desperate to escape. Loosely based on the tragic story of underage schoolgirl prostitutes in Australia, Truck Stop explores the repercussions of sexualisation in the media and the pressures placed on young women to be deemed sexy and likeable in the male gaze.

Laura Boyd directs the flagship production for Heart Street and will star alongside Jessalyn Gerbholz, Shonita Joshi, Kateryna Korol, Essay Kidane and Una Petrovic.

Truck Stop will run for two nights only, with limited tickets starting at $5.
To purchase tickets, visit: https://bit.ly/30V3ibS

Heart Street Theater Company was founded to present works with 'heart' - texts that are raw, vulnerable and challenging, daring us to speak even when our voices are trembling. Heart Street chooses to focus on texts that feature a majority female cast, to allow female-identifying artists the opportunity to be emotional, in defiance of a world that often asks them not to be.