FRAME NARRATIVE Comes to the Old Fitz Theatre Next Month

In March 2024, New Ghosts Theatre Company (NGTC) CEO & Managing Director Lucy Clements will direct the world premiere season of Emily Sheehan’s Frame Narrative at the Old Fitz Theatre. The season marks Clements’ first NGTC production in her inaugural year as Artistic Director of the iconic basement theatre in Woolloomooloo, and builds on a stellar track-record of NGTC producing new Australian, wom*n-centered work. 

Frame Narrative is written by award-winning, Melbourne-based playwright Emily Sheehan, whose recent work Monument was programmed for a return season at Red Stitch, following a sell-out run in 2023. Clements was the winner of the 2023 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Director & Best Independent Production, has debuted eight Australian plays and led four Australian premieres of new international work, and now runs the Old Fitz Theatre alongside Executive Producer Emma Wright and the support of the NGTC Board of directors. 

A metatheatrical gothic thriller, Frame Narrative traces the evolution of gothic literature to 90s trashy horror, and asks whether you can ever truly separate a work of fiction from its author. Brought to the stage by a team of 23 artists, this electric work will feature a cast of five - Madeline Li (a 2023 NIDA grad), Megan O'Connell (Colin from Accounts), Jennifer Rani (Outhouse Theatre’s Consent), Charles Upton (Outhouse Theatre & Mad March Hare’s Dry Land), and Emma Wright (Queensland Theatre’s As You Like It) - four of whom will be making their Old Fitz Theatre debuts.

“It’s been a thrill to wrangle with subject matter like artistry, obsession and whether we can ever truly separate a work of fiction from its author. The play takes inspiration from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to unpack our relationship to what we make as well as what has made us. The monster in this work isn’t a hideous monster, it’s something made in your image that starts surpassing you.” – Emily Sheehan

“I feel so privileged to be at the helm of this latest work by the incredible Emily Sheehan, who I believe to be one Australia’s most exciting up and coming voices. My passion for this project was born when I read its first draft back in 2022, and has not waned since that day. I am also endlessly inspired by the team of 21 exceptional Designers, Performers, Producers and Managers that have since joined us in bringing this story to the stage for the very first time. Their work on this production is phenomenal, and I can’t wait to share it with audiences in March.” – Lucy Clements