New Theatre Presents BREATHLESS

New Theatre will present Breathless by Deborah Mulhall. The rehearsed reading will be followed by a Q&A with the cast and creatives.

Harry is gay but he is also a soldier who volunteers to fight in WW1. His passion for automobiles leads to a meeting a with a French soldier who is also enamoured with this new form of transport. Tom is a lad from the country who has to endure and live with his experiences on the Kokoda Trail and whose tragedy plays out on those at home. Dave is conscripted into the military and sent to Vietnam, where he finds a political conscience. Alan comes from a family of military men who give unquestioning loyalty to the army.

Moving through space and time, all four soldiers are part of the same unit. Each finds a brotherhood in the army but also has to struggle with the demons of PTSD, as do their partners and families.

Mother, Donna, Louisa, Joyce are women whose attitudes reflect their times: Donna has the anti-war fervour of the late 1960s; Joyce is a stoic, hard-working woman of WW2; whilst Louise reflects a more questioning, challenging society.

This deeply moving contemporary Australian play explores the unchanging, cyclic horror of armed conflict, the unnatural stress it places on the soldiers at the front line and how that bleeds into their civilian lives, traumatically affecting not only the combatants, but all those who love them.

Finding war incomprehensible, playwright Deborah Mulhall visited many battlefields and interviewed many soldiers. This play explores what motivates the foot soldier even as they are fully aware of the horror and futility of war. By looking at participation in four different wars, she reveals how the nature of that experience never actually changes.

Breathless was shortlisted for the 2019 Silver Gull Play Award.

CONTENT WARNING: this play is historically, politically and socially reflective of attitudes of the day and includes racial slurs that could trigger or offend

The performance takes place on Sunday 25 April at 2pm.

EVENT URL: https://newtheatre.org.au/breathless-a-rehearsed-reading/

BOOKINGS: https://aunewtheatre.sales.ticketsearch.com/sales/salesevent/8890

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