8 /10 1 Votes8
Originally published 2006 | 4/5 Goodreads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
People also search for Saturn's Return, Troy's House, Così | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Strangers in Between is a two-act Australian play by Tommy Murphy. It won the $15,000 2006 NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Best Play. It was first staged at Sydney's Griffin Theatre Company in February 2005, where it broke box office records.
Contents
It is published by Currency Press with Murphy's stage adaptation of Timothy Conigrave's Holding the Man.
Synopsis
Strangers in Between explores brotherhood. Shane flees his family in regional Goulburn and finds himself in Sydney's Kings Cross. He attempts to build a surrogate family in the city. He confuses the two families. The city lover he worships is doubled and morphed with the brother he fears. Peter, an older man who is dealing with the imminent death of his elderly mother, is himself rendered maternal by the needs of runaway Shane.
Reviews
A reviewer of the first UK performance wrote that:
Tommy Murphy’s Strangers In Between is one of the most beautifully written, achingly honest, and devastating insights into the life of a person growing up in a world that refuses to understand who that person truly is. Full of hope, raucous ribaldry, and sweet, tender moments of connection between disparate souls who eventually form a family,... It is wrapped in love, acceptance and understanding. Absolutely unmissable.
Details of premiere production
Griffin Theatre Company at the SBW Stables Theatre, Sydney, Australia.
17 February – 12 March 2005
Director: David Berthold
Designer: Alice Babidge
Lighting: Anthony Pearson
Shane - Sam Dunn
Peter - Anthony Phelan
Will/Ben - Brett Stiller
Selected Productions
27 - 31 May 2008 Riverside Theatre Parramatta (part of a national tour)
23 July - 16 August 2009 Store Room Theatre, North Fitzroy
1-3 August 2013 University of Wollongong
21 June - 16 July 2016 UK premiere at the King’s Head Theatre.
10 January 2017 - 4 February 2017 King’s Head Theatre, Inner London New season