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Holding the Man is a stage adaptation by Tommy Murphy of Tim Conigrave's memoir of the same title. It is one of the most successful Australian plays of recent times and the winner of multiple awards and been produced across Australia as well as on London's West End and in Los Angeles.
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Productions
The original production, directed by David Berthold, premiered in 2006 in a critically acclaimed, sold-out season at Sydney's Griffin Theatre Company, Australia's leading new writing theatre, and became the company's highest-grossing production in its 30-year history.
The production played six, highly successful seasons in various theatres around Australia:
The production was remounted at La Boite Theatre Company with a new cast, 16 February – 9 March 2013.
West End (London) season
This original Australian production was recreated in London’s West End for a limited season from 23 April to 3 July 2010. The cast included Jane Turner, (Kath from TV’s Kath & Kim). David Berthold directed and Brian Thomson designed the sets, with costumes and puppets by Micka Agosta. The Trafalgar Studios season was produced by Daniel Sparrow and Mike Walsh, Matthew Henderson and Suzie Franke, Benjamin Jones and Neil Gooding Productions
Other productions
The North American premiere of Holding the Man was staged by San Francisco's New Conservatory Theater Center, 21 September – 4 November 2007.
A New Zealand production was produced by Silo Theatre (at Auckland's Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre) from 7–29 August 2009, directed by Shane Bosher.
The State Theatre Company of South Australia production ran from 21 October – 13 November 2011 at the Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre, directed by Rosalba Clemente and starring Nic English, Luke Clayson, Catherine Fitzgerald, Nick Pelomis, Geoff Revell and Ellen Steele. It was designed by Morag Cook, composed by Stuart Day, with lighting design by Mark Shelton and puppets created by Stephanie Fisher.
Los Angeles season
The Australian Theater Company presented their production in Los Angeles in May/June 2014 at The Matrix Theater with Larry Moss directing. The production was met with much fanfare with a launch hosted by the Australian Consul General in Los Angeles. The cast featured Nate Jones, Adam J. Yeend, Cameron Daddo, and Roxane Wilson and was very well received by US critics citing Moss' direction, Murphy's writing and the performances of the cast, particularly the two leads.
Publication
The stage version was published by Currency Press in November 2006 in a double volume with another play by Murphy, Strangers in Between. A new edition of the play was published in April 2010 by Nick Hern Books in the UK to coincide with the London season of the production.
Original Australian creative team
London creative team
New Zealand (Auckland) creative team
San Francisco creative team
Los Angeles creative team
Awards for stage version
Judges' citation, NSW Premier's Literary Award for Best Play:
There have been many plays about life and love in the time of AIDS, some of them Australian, but this play is, however, in a real way, unique.
Adapted from Tim Conigrave's award-winning and much-loved memoir of the same name, Holding the Man tells the unusual and remarkable love story of Tim and John Caleo, who despite parental opposition, fell in love at Melbourne's Xavier College as 16-year-olds and remained together, in and out of love, until John died of AIDS. When they meet, Tim is an aspiring young actor and John is a promising footballer. For those who do not follow AFL it should be noted that the title is a football term.
Faithful to the book, the play covers some twenty years, and undertakes this demanding task gracefully. A love affair that spans such a long time is notoriously hard to dramatize yet Murphy does this with skill (he has an easy command of both the theatrical and of the dramatic), with wit, and with sensitivity. The personal and the political deftly intersect here, as the story is, in many ways, also a history of the gay pride movement in Australia. The play is by turns hilariously funny, tender and moving. It cleverly avoids the traps of sentimentality and self-pity as it journeys toward its inevitable and tragic conclusion.