MinusOneSister
by Anna Barnes
Stories Like These
Griffin Theatre Company 2015
Director Luke Rogers
Designer Georgia Hopkins
Lighting Designer Sian James-Holland
Sound Designer Nate Edmondson
Producer Peter Gahan
Stage Manager Angharad Lindley
Cast
Kate Cheel
Lucy Heffernan
Liam Nunan
Contessa Treffone
Photography Brett Boardman
World Premiere
A father sacrifices the life of his eldest daughter for the common good – having her snatched away during a TV ad break. It’s the kind of thing that can really mess up a family. Mother turns against father. Son turns against mother. Sister turns against sister. Maybe you’ve heard the myth, but not like this.
MinusOneSister is Sophocles’ Electra furiously wrenched into the present and told from the point of view of the teenagers. Eternal obsessions mingle with the obsessions of our times, bloodshed goes hand in hand with Bacardi Breezers and Facebook, and a chilling portrait emerges of a family irreversibly shattered by grief and guilt.
A piercing new play with ancient roots, MinusOneSister won Anna Barnes the Patrick White Playwrights’ Award in 2013.
MinusOneSister was a Stories Like These production in association with Griffin Independent.
★★★★ "formidable, forceful performances… Luke Rogers’ direction is tense and musical… Anna Barnes has tapped into something essential and immediate about young women, about anxiety and terror and anger and a constant, destructive lack of control over their own bodies and lives"
– Time Out Sydney
"Luke Rogers has directed a fast-moving, textured and energetic production. The production elements are all first-class… this cast of four sensitive and forceful young actors gives you faith in the future (the present, really) of Australian acting"
– Daily Review
"A thoroughly compelling and thought provoking night at the theatre."
– ArtsHub
"Luke Rogers’ direction and staging, and the preparedness of the quartet of performers, seals the success of this world-premiere production... MinusOneSister is a beautiful take on teenage reality. The proficiency of its writing, direction and ensemble acting amount to an enjoyable new reflection of the Electra story."
"Luke Rogers’ direction brings to the stage a wild and decadent destructiveness that is often mesmerising… A compelling cast, each with a distinctive presence, and an enthusiasm for agile atmospheric shifts… the production is a polished and sometimes spectacular one."
"This is a tight ensemble piece, the energy and pace does not let up... Another great production from Stories Like These and the Griffin Theatre. Worth adding this to you ‘Go See’ list"
– Theatre Now
“Georgia Hopkins‘ plastic draped walls, furniture, and television conjure domestic sterility and crime scene. The bed becomes an unholy altar of bloody matracide.”
– Australian Stage
