Grace

2022 Performance Dates

WORLD PREMIERE SEASON
Previews 1 – 4 February
Season 5 – 27 February
Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre

What They’re Saying

LIMELIGHT – ★★★★
“Lovers of theatre will find much to savour”

TIME OUT – ★★★★
“Katy Warner’s insightful and potent new play tackles forbidden territory. What of the women who do not see motherhood as their destiny? What of those that chose that path and regretted it? What of the daughters who were left behind? This fraught territory, so-oft depicted in dark fairy tale form as the way of a wicked witch, writhes in an extraordinary way around Warner’s work.“

“We are enthralled by what is at once a profoundly theatrical experience, but one that also feels somehow cinematic.”

THE AGE – ★★★1/2 Cameron Woodhead

“You could watch the ripples of wit in Warner’s opening scene all night, the characterisation is so intricate… you never for a minute doubt that these two women have known and loved each other all their lives – a task made easier by Warner’s sharp ear for the contradictions that underscore familial love.”

“Grace is a multi-generational family drama that sees notable local acting, directing and writing talent converge in a single production – a happy conjunction that’s rarer than anyone cares to think about.”

KATY WARNER – PLAYWRIGHT

Katy studied at the Victorian College of the Arts, receiving a Master of Writing for Performance in 2012. Her plays have been presented inAustralia, New Zealand and the UK. She is an AWGIE winner (Best Children’s Theatre for Reasons to Stay Inside), recipient of the Melbourne Fringe Award for Best Emerging Writer (These are the isolate) and two-time nominee for a Green Room award for new writing (A Prudent Man and Spencer). Her play, nest, was long-listed for Theatre503 Playwriting Awards (UK). Her children’s play, The Meme and the Moon, was shortlisted for the Martin Lysicrates Prize. And she was shortlisted in 2019 and 2020 for Lysicrates Prize (Appropriate and The Party). Katy is a writer with the Red Stitch Theatre Company’s INK Program.  In 2018, she presented a new work, K, as part of the MTC Cybec Electric Readings season.

SARAH GOODES – DIRECTOR

For the past 4 years Sarah Goodes has been the Associate Artistic Director at Melbourne Theatre Company. Before this she was a Resident Director at the Sydney Theatre Company for 4 years. She is an award-winning theatre director recognised for bringing over 15 new Australian works to the mainstage. She was Resident Director at Sydney Theatre Company from 2013 to 2016. In 2018, Sarah won the Helpmann Award for Best Direction of a Play for her work on Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children which opened at Melbourne Theatre Company and transferred to Sydney Theatre Company. The Children won 3 Helpmann Awards – Best Direction of a Play, Best Play and Best Female Actor.

Sarah directed the award-winning production of the world premiere of Joanna Murray Smith’s Switzerland for Sydney Theatre Company which toured to MTC the following year. Her production of The Hanging was nominated for Best Mainstage Production at the Sydney Theatre Awards. Sarah’s production of Golden Shield for Melbourne Theatre Company received 7 nominations at the 2020 Green Room Awards. Sarah is a graduate of both the University of New South Wales with majors in Literature and Theatre (final year at San Diego at UCSD where she performed with San Diego Rep) and the Victorian College of the Arts (University of Melbourne) in Directing. Sarah has taught and directed at the Australian Theatre for Young People and the National Institute of Dramatic Art.