Melbourne Theatre Company
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By Tracy Letts
Playing at the Arts Centre, Playhouse 23 May to 27 June
www.mtc.com.au
So what that Mom pops pills like circus peanuts? Or that these three sisters would be Chekhov’s worst nightmare? Who needs happy marriages and kids who make you proud? Good or bad, family is family. So when the O ld Man goes missing, it's up to everyone to drop what they’re doing and haul their burdens of resentment and their sorry asses back home to Osage County, Oklahoma.
You can’t choose your relatives. A smash on Broadway, Tracy Letts’s caustic, darkly funny August: Osage County rewrites the grand American family drama for our cynical and confused age.
The Man from Mukinupin
By Dorothy Hewett
Playing at the MTC Theatre, Sumner 6 June to 19 July
www.mtc.com.au
Down in the wheat-belt town of Mukinupin, east of the rabbit-proof fence, the shopkeeper’s daughter Polly is in love with young Jack Tuesday. Her parents disapprove, but in this friendly community of battlers, you feel that love will overcome all. Still, every town has its dark side and Mukinupin keeps hers well-hidden.
Merry hearts and broken spirits. One of the treasures of Australian playwriting, Dorothy Hewett’s The Man from Mukinupin sharpens its sweet romanticism with hardship’s salt tears.
God of Carnage
By Yasmina Yeza
Playing at the Arts Centre, Playhouse 29 August to 3 October
www.mtc.com.au
The other day in the neighbourhood park, little Ferdinand whacked his playmate Bruno with a stick, breaking two teeth. So it is important that the parents of the boys set the right example and sit down to discuss the matter calmly and reasonably. After all, nothing will be gained by behaving like children...
Human nature, red in tooth and claw. Yasmina Reza, the writer who drew maximum laughs from Minimalist art in Art, uses her corrosive wit to strip away the thin veneer of civilization.
