FAIR PLAY Will Make Australian Premiere at the Old Fitz Theatre

Fair Play is a blistering, urgent two-hander about ambition, friendship, and the brutal cost of elite sport. Set in the high-pressure world of competitive middle-distance running, the play follows teenage athletes Ann and Sophie as they train, race, and grow up together — until success, scrutiny, and institutional power threaten to tear them apart. Performances run 6 - 21 March 2026 at the Old Fitz Theatre.

Written by acclaimed British playwright Ella Road (The Phlebotomist), Fair Play interrogates gender, race, bodily autonomy, and fairness in sport, drawing on real-world debates around eligibility, identity, and who gets to decide what a “level Playing Field” really is.

Directed by Emma Whitehead in its Australian Premiere, this electrifying production fuses rapid-fire dialogue with physical storytelling to deliver a gripping, emotionally charged work that speaks far beyond the track. At once a coming-of-age story and a political provocation, Fair Play asks a vital contemporary question: what do we sacrifice in the name of winning?

Emma Whitehead is a director known for bold, rigorous storytelling with a sharp contemporary focus on power, identity, and the body. Her work spans new writing and reimagined texts, with a particular attention on intimate, actor-driven performance that interrogates the systems shaping our lives. Emma brings a muscular, compassionate approach to Fair Play, balancing its propulsive athletic energy with emotional precision and political clarity. Her direction foregrounds the humanity at the centre of the play, creating work that is as visceral as it is urgent.

Lost Thought creates rigorous, intimate theatre that interrogates power, embraces uncertainty, and trusts audiences to think deeply.

 

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