I don’t want anything. I only want people.

FOUL PLAY presents the WORLD PREMIERE of JULIE by HOLLY BRINDLEY

29th September – 14th October at the Noel Lothian Hall, Adelaide Botanic Gardens

THE COMPANY:

Foul Play’s aim is to examine classic works through the prism of modern feminism, as well as champion cultural diversity on our stages. The company’s Artistic Director, Yasmin Gurreeboo, gathers together a team of artists and administrators (a pick up company) to develop and present each project. Foul Play produces ambitious and experimental work - both in content and form – located in unexpected spaces.

“This is theatre at its best: innovative, exciting, meaningful, fresh and yet grounded in the best traditions of story-telling. Some bigger companies could learn a thing or three from Foul Play.” – Glam Adelaide review of Eurydice, 2015

Julie will be the second of three works presented by Foul Play showcasing women playwrights and their interpretations of classic works.  This triptych also includes Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice (performed in spring 2015) and Emily Steel’s original collaboration with the company, Persephone (currently in development and slated for presentation in 2019). Each of these works focuses on women’s sexuality and the possibilities of sexual expression available to women as well as the power dynamics in women’s relationships with men.

THE PRODUCTION:  

Holly Brindley’s Julie is a reimagining of August Strindberg’s 1888 work Miss Julie taking place in modern South Australia on the night of Julie's 18th birthday party. This work interrogates grey area of power and sexuality in heterosexual relationships. Holly has been driven by her fascination with what happens when a woman’s behaviour is deemed to be “promiscuous” (or not).

The kitchen. It is two o’clock in the morning. There is a mangled birthday cake with some candles in it. JULIE is drinking wine and eating cake with her hand. TOM also drinks wine. A long silence while they eat and drink. JULIE takes a bit of cake and feeds it to TOM. She continues eating.

Holly is an emerging, award-winning South Australian playwright and this will be the first full production of any of her works in South Australia. Our 3 week season will run from 29th September and 14th October and will invite Adelaide audiences to the Noel Lothian Hall tucked away in the idyllic Adelaide Botanic Gardens. Led by an almost entirely female creative team, this bold, new and relevant production is not to-be-missed.

THE SEASON

Noel Lothian Hall, Adelaide Botanic Gardens, Plane Tree Drive, ADELAIDE SA 5000

29th & 30th September (Previews)

1st October (Opening Night)

3rd – 14th October (no shows on Mon 9th or Thurs 12th)

All Previews and Performances at 8pm

THE CREATIVES

Director: Yasmin Gurreeboo

Yasmin is Foul Play's Artistic Director and has directed all the company's production to date: Macbeth (2013) and Eurydice (2015). Yasmin is also the Associate Artists for ActNow Theatre and Co-Producer for the Directors’ Collective South Australia. Yasmin was the Artistic Director of the West Wing Arts Centre in Slough; Artistic Programme Manager at Harrow Arts Centre, and Producing Associate at the Barbican Centre in London. Yasmin was the assistant / tour director for Sydney Theatre & State Theatre Company’s 2016 production of Machu Picchu. Yasmin’s directing highlights include: Greek (UK Tour), An Ode To My Sisters (UK Tour), And No More Shall We Part (Bakehouse Theatre Company) and Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl (Foul Play Theatre). Yasmin Gurreeboo has a first class honours drama degree from the University of Exeter and is an alumnus from the Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School, Paris. Yasmin Gurreeboo is a raised working class, CALD artist of Islamic heritage, who is committed to championing women's voices and cultural diversity on our stages.

Playwright: Holly Brindley

Holly Brindley trained in acting at the Flinders University Drama Centre.  Since graduating in 2012, she has been recognized as a strong emerging playwright in SA, with her work being awarded the Flinders University Young Playwrights Award in 2015 and 2013, resulting in development and public readings of her plays by STCSA. Holly attended the 2014 Australian Theatre for Young People’s National Studio playwriting residency, during which she wrote the monologue We Live in the City, Don’t We? published by Currency Press (The Voices Project Encore Edition).  During 2015, Holly was mentored by playwright Ross Mueller through the ATYP Fresh Ink National Mentoring Program.  During this program Holly wrote two short plays: You Love It was produced by the VCA for their 2016 Directors Season, directed by Peter Blackburn.  The Bench will be produced by Moment to Moment Theatre Company in early 2017.  Throughout 2016, Holly was a participant in the Malthouse Theatre Company Provocateurs Program.  Holly is currently undertaking a Master of Writing for Performance at the VCA.

Producer: Lisa Harper Campbell


Lisa Harper Campbell is an acting graduate of the Flinders Drama Centre. She is also a writer, academic, reviewer and broadcaster. Highlights since graduating in 2012 include hosting Radio Adelaide’s Arts Breakfast, writing, performing and producing her solo show “A Bee’s Dick Away” (2015), taking on the role of Julie Bishop in the 2016 national tour of “Abbott! The Musical” and obtaining her PhD in French Studies earlier this year. She is thrilled to be part of a team bringing a brand new, relevant work to life.

Designer: Meghann Wilson

MEG WILSON is an Adelaide-based interdisciplinary artist who works predominantly with large-scale and site-specific installation and performance. Her visual art and theatre design practices are mutually influential and frequently overlap. Meg aims to provoke imposed perplexity, uneasiness and a sense of drama in the everyday, through explorations of the performativity of space and the audience encounter with the ordinary, set within the context of the out-of-the-ordinary. She has broadly exhibited independently in SA, TAS and VIC, and collaborates regularly with performers Ashton Malcolm and Josephine Were. Recent works include You Will Only Ever Be Any Good if You Can Run the Marathon, an endurance feat performed at the Contemporary Art Centre of SA (2015), Team Trampoline at FELTspace (2016), and Sometimes I…, a punk feminist performance in development exclusively for teenage girls. Meg is a former co-director of FELTspace ARI. As designer for theatre Meg has worked with companies including Vitalstatistix, Foul Play, Carclew and Restless Dance Theatre. Most recently, she was designer for Restless Dance Theatres’ 2017 Adelaide Festival premiere of Intimate Space. Throughout 2016 Meg was Lead Artist intern with experimental theatremakers, THE RABBLE. Projects for 2017 include the development of her independent work SQUASH!, and artistic residencies with STCSA and the Adelaide Festival Centre InSpace program.

THE CAST

Julie: Lucia Van Sebille

Lucia Van Sebille was brought up in theatre and has pursued acting ever since. Whilst studying at the Flinders University Drama Centre, she performed in Love and Information directed by Tom Healey , played Violet Weston in Tracy Letts' August: Osage County directed by Nick Garsden, Katya in Brian Friel's adaption of A Month In The Country, directed by David Mealor, Lucy in Dracula adapted and directed by Sarah Dunn and dual roles in Simon Stephens' Pornography directed by John Green from Columbia University, Chicago. Another highlight was doubling characters as Rick and Samara in Angela Betzien's War Crimes directed by Shannon Mackowski. She found her inner clown in an intensive Pochinko Clowning course run by Hew Parham, and faced her fears of the single mic doing stand up comedy with Caleb Lewis.  Lucia aspires to work in varies areas and roles in the arts but always with intelligence, collaboration and social conscience.

John: Nick Bennett

Nick Bennett completed a Bachelor of Arts in Drama & Film at Flinders University, went to the Centre for Performing Arts in Adelaide and studied with Philippe Gaulier in Paris from 2007-08. On his return from Paris he worked on a number of productions with Stone/Castro, including: Purple directed by Paulo Castro in Whyalla for D’faces of Youth Arts Theatre Company in 2008, Private Lives directed by Jo Stone for the 2008 Feast Festival, Footsoldiers for Gorge 2009 and Superheroes in 2010. He played Dean in the feature film One Eyed Girl, which premiered at the Adelaide International Film Festival in 2013. In recent years he has worked with No Strings Attached (April 2014 & October 2015) on the development of Angels, directed by Paulo Castro. Most recently he was in Tension of Opposites for Vitalstatistix Adhocracy 2016.

Christine: Emma Beech

Emma Beech started making shows for her mum in her bedroom when she was six. Since then, she has graduated from Flinders Drama Centre and gone on to become a performer, theatre-maker and stand-up documenter. Emma works with collaborators that include installation-theatre companies Carte Blanche and Group 38, in Denmark, and Last Tuesday Society, Real TV, Patch, Monkey Baa, Playwriting Australia, Open Space Contemporary Arts and Vitalstatistix, in Australia. She is a founding member of the Australian Bureau of Worthiness, through which she creates residency-made performance works. Her production Homage to Uncertainty won the Melbourne Fringe Tour Ready award at the 2013 Adelaide Fringe. For screen, she has worked with SA filmmakers Closer Productions and Rob March, and has worked with the ABC on two television series, Artshow and Henry Hoke.

Tom: Doug Mowbray

Doug Mowbray graduated from the Adelaide College of the Arts in 2013. Whilst studying he had a role in the TV miniseries ANZAC Girls and was fortunate enough to have worked with Rhys McConnohie in A Midsummer Night’s Dream as well as State Theatre Director Chris Drummond in Our Town. Since graduating, Doug has worked on various film and television projects. Highlights include his independent feature debut in ‘Crew Cut’, appearing in the documentary series 'Changed Forever' and continuing his training at Angela Heesom Casting. He also graduated from the Film and Television Studio where he had the privilege of working with Tony Knight (Previous Head of NIDA), Damian Walsh-Howling and Pia Miranda. Has written his own work 'Got To Have Faith' and most recently has tried his skills in casting, directing, and producing his own work.

THE CREATIVES

Our team also includes:

Susan Grey Gardener (Lighting Designer)

Sascha Budimski (Sound Designer)

Ellen Graham (Assistant Producer)

Chiara Gabrielli (Stage Manager)

STEPPING STONES CULTURAL MENTORSHIP

This project will coincide with Foul Play's inaugural cultural mentorship program, Stepping Stones, an initiative designed to invite a CALD/ATSI artist to gain experience in a safe, professional setting. Karen Lovegrove is an aspiring ATSI artist and will be acting as an understudy for Emma Beech in the role of Christine.

SUSTAINABILITY

Foul Play is committed to implementing environmentally conscious and sustainable practices when creating their work. The carbon emissions generated by the company’s production of Eurydice were calculated and offset by the planting of trees. Foul Play shall continue this practice for Julie by promoting the use of public transport, encouraging artists to use digital copies of scripts/documentation and off-setting any unavoidable emissions.

HOW THE FUNDS WILL BE USED

Your donation will fund:

Artist Fees

Design budget: set & lighting

Our production of Julie has been fortunate in receiving support from Arts South Australia to cover almost all of our Artist Fees. This funding however only supports South Australian artists. Doug Mowbray (Tom), although being Adelaide born and raised, has recently moved to Melbourne and so his artist fees remain unfunded. A large portion of the money raised from this Pozible campaign will ensure that Doug is compensated for the time and work he has generously committed to this project..

Our performance space (the beautiful Noel Lothian Hall in the idyllic Adelaide Botanic Gardens) has been generously offered to us at a heavily discounted rate by our friends at Blanco Foods. However, it will be our responsibility to transform this space into a performance venue. Our wonderful designer and collaborator Meg Wilson needs your help to bring her bold, innovative vision to life. We hold ourselves to a very high standard of work, and your pledge will help us to create the best possible production, and do justice to Holly Brindley’s wonderful script.

HOW ELSE CAN YOU HELP?

Spread the word! We want to get as many people along to this relevant, exciting new work. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and use the #foulplayjulie.

THE CHALLENGES

We have two main challenges in our production of Julie.

FINANCES

The funding we have already secured has made this project possible. However, they only go so far in properly reimbursing our wonderful creative team who have very generously committed their time and skills. One of our actors, now based interstate, does not qualify for these funds. Your donation will go a long way in ensuring that each and every member of our team is paid for their involvement.

TRANSFORMATION OF VENUE

We have a fantastic space in the Noel Lothian Hall of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. We’re keen to activate this space into a viable performance venue and that means a lot of work for designing our production. It provides us a blank canvas and with your help, we can create a masterpiece.