Sydney Theatre Company presents LETHAL INDIFFERENCE

Lethal Indifference opens Sydney Theatre Company's Wharf 1 in February, bringing together three Australian rising stars - playwright Anna Barnes, director Jessica Arthur and actor Emily Barclay.

Told through a single actor, Lethal Indifference explores society's complicity in domestic violence - an issue which in Australia affects one in three women and sees one woman each week killed by their current or former partner.

However this play explores domestic violence beyond the statistics. Emily Barclay (ABC's Please Like Me) plays a young writer in Melbourne's inner suburbs who quits her day job in a clothing store to find something new, something with a stronger sense of purpose. She lands a role in public relations for a family violence legal service. She visits the coroner's court to hear the inquest into the death of a woman around the same age as her. As witnesses testify and the coroner's findings mount up, she leads us through the case's decisive turning points, drawing a portrait of how our institutions of justice can fail to protect vulnerable women.

Lethal Indifference will be Sydney Theatre Company Directing Associate Jessica Arthur's STC directing debut.

"I have always been drawn to plays that make a comment on society and hold a mirror up to themes and ideas that are usually shied away from," Jessica said. "This play is important because it shows that domestic violence does not discriminate, it can happen to anyone. It proves that even if you are ticking all the boxes to protect yourself, the system can still fail you. Too many women are dying, the statistics don't change and the cycle continues."

Lethal Indifference is one of three plays in the STC 2018 season which were developed through the STC Rough Drafts program along with Still Point Turning: The Catherine McGregor Story by Priscilla Jackman and The Long Forgotten Dream by H Lawrence Sumner. Rough Drafts are a week-long creative development which gives theatre-makers the opportunity to try out new ideas, new ways of working and new collaborations.