National Theatre of Parramatta to Premiere SWALLOW

Australia's newest theatre company, National Theatre of Parramatta, will open its inaugural season with the potent and powerful production, Swallow, written by Olivier award winning playwright Stef Smith. This Australian premiere production will be directed by founder and former Artistic Director of Force Majeure and Helpmann Award winner, Kate Champion.

Receiving rave reviews for its world premiere season at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2015, Swallow explores questions of identity, heartbreak and hope with a vivid and poetic intensity.

With a stellar cast of just three, Swallow tells the stories of Rebecca (Megan Drury), Sam (Valerie Berry) and Anna (Luisa Hastings Edge) who are simultaneously at the tipping point between self-destruction and self-acceptance. Sharing similar states of vulnerability and defiance, they influence each other's lives in unforeseeable ways while connecting their fates and ability to re-enter the outside world. A story about survival, Swallow is tragic yet comic, complex yet simple and ugly yet beautiful.

National Theatre of Parramatta Executive Producer, Joanne Kee said, "Swallow fearlessly launches the company and will be the Australian premiere of this bold, new play by young female playwright Stef Smith. This is the first time her work has been presented in Australia and we are confident it will resonate with audiences in Western Sydney. It takes us inside the characters' experiences of measuring up to social expectations, a universal theme."

Swallow is the first major work for award-winning Sydney director Kate Champion since her departure from Force Majeure, a company she founded based on creating cross-art form performance. With renowned experience as a director, choreographer and performer, Champion's direction of National Theatre of Parramatta's opening production is indicative of the creative and high-quality ambitions of the new company.

"It is a rare and wonderful opportunity to direct the opening play of a brand new theatre company,' said Champion. 'Particularly a play with such vivid contemporary characters performed by three powerful actors and staged by an extraordinary creative team."

In addition to Champion, 13 female theatre professionals (from a team of 15) will bring the show to the Parramatta stage including assistant to the director, Kate Worsley, who has received a professional development and mentorship opportunity via National Theatre of Parramatta's Creative Futures Program, which aims to grow the theatre sector in Western Sydney.

Swallow previews from Thursday 21 April at Riverside Theatres in Parramatta and plays until Saturday 30 April.

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