Griffin Theatre Company Presents SPLINTER By Hilary Bell

Hilary Bell's disquieting and downright chilling thriller channels tabloid news and primal fears alike. [29 July 2019] Griffin Theatre Company's Artistic Director Lee Lewis (The Bleeding Tree, Prima Facie) will direct Splinter, a spine-tingling psychological thriller from acclaimed Australian playwright Hilary Bell, starring Lucy Bell and Simon Gleeson, from 6 September.

Following the return of their missing child, a couple grapple with a trauma that has irrevocably changed their family. Fierce love has sustained them through her unbearable absence. But now she's home, something just isn't right. How do they stop their imaginations running wild? When will things start to feel normal again?

Hilary Bell's references for Splinter spanned sources as diverse as Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, folk tales about changelings, the Grimm Brothers' The Wild Swans, Andersen's The Snow Queen, and a memoir written by Ed Smart about his daughter Elizabeth's disappearance. She says "I was intrigued by the idea of starting a play with what appears to be an ending: the restitution of a missing child. I had always wondered, when thinking about such cases, what life could be like following such a traumatic event. Do the effects ever vanish?"

Revisiting the sinister territories of Wolf Lullaby, which premiered at Griffin in 1996, Splinter reunites Bell's supreme atmospherics with another powerhouse performance from sister, Lucy Bell (Speaking in Tongues, Emerald City) as a mother forced to confront the unthinkable. Helpmann award-winning actor Simon Gleeson (Les Misérables, Mamma Mia, Love Never Dies) will take on the role of the father and husband consumed by doubt.

Director Lee Lewis says, "This play has stayed with me always, it's haunted me." She adds, "I have a shameless love of Hilary Bell's writing and I feel incredibly lucky to be doing this play at Griffin."

In the dark of Sydney winter, this claustrophobic chamber piece will leave nowhere for the audience to hide.

TICKETS
Bookings 02 9361 3817 or griffintheatre.com.au
Adult $62 | Concession/Preview/Seniors/Group 8+ $52 | Under 35 $38
Monday Rush $20 - available from 12 noon on Mondays for that evening's performance
Transaction fees of $4 for online bookings and $6 for phone bookings apply

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