BLAME TRAFFIC, A New Play About Chance, Forgiveness, And Traffic, Comes to The Old 505

Alice is cut off every day after work by the same Mercedes. One night, she decides to take a chance and follow the car home in order to vent her rage. Meanwhile, Jacquie believes that she is personally responsible for all the random car crashes in Sydney; Richard is concocting a plan to change his luck after a mechanic tells him that his car can't be fixed; Sharif has run out of luck since his brother disappeared, and Rachel, well, she's going to re-write this whole story so it best suits her, and, perhaps, the insurance company she works for.

Running for two weeks only from November 13, Blame Traffic follows seven characters through a series of catastrophic coincidences, as they navigate the streets of Sydney.

"We are exposed to so much chance every day," says writer and director, Michael Andrew Collins. "We are at the mercy of so much randomness-the randomness of other people, biology, fate, the NSW transport system... In Blame Traffic characters are confronted with this randomness and asked to make meaning from it."

Michael Andrew Collins is an emerging playwright whose play, Impending Everyone (commissioned by ATYP), was performed at the SBW Stables Theatre earlier this year. This exciting young writer has been nominated for STC's Patrick White Award, the Griffin Award, and Subtlenuance's Silver Gull Play Award in Sydney, as well as a variety of other writing awards from around Australia.

His latest work, Blame Traffic, is about people's attempts to understand what really happened, the story they will tell themselves about what happened, and whether it matters if it is the "right" story.

"I hope this play can also point us towards the thousands of stories, lives, and random data all around us, that exist and affect us, but which we probably never think about, unless we are forced, also, to make meaning of them," says Collins.

twenty seven six will present Blame Traffic's premiere season at The Old 505 Theatre in Newtown, bringing together a cast of five performers whose diversity of culture and perspective will bring to life this very Sydney story.

"I'm so excited to be working on this excellent new Australian play alongside such outstanding emerging artists," says performer, Mary Soudi. "Michael has written a captivating story with vibrant characters that reflect Sydney's diversity."

Catch this local and emerging writer's newest work about bending the rules, changing the odds, and taming the randomness of the universe at The Old 505 theatre this November.

"I am incredibly excited to be premiering this play with this team in Sydney," says Collins, "and I can't wait to bring it to the stage."