Nominated at the 2025 NSW Literary Prizes and hailed by the Sydney Morning Herald in a five-star review as “a blazing standout” that makes them “excited for Australian theatre,” Cut Chilli arrives in Melbourne as one of the most anticipated Australian works of the year.
The play follows Jamie, who was abandoned as a baby in Sri Lanka and raised by his adoptive mother Katherine in the beach town of Mandurah, Western Australia. Whilst at university in Melbourne, Jamie falls for Zahra, an activist and podcaster whose research brings him face-to-face with the shady history of international adoption. Jamie begins to question everything Katherine has told him, and why he has never seen his adoption file.
What follows is a journey back home and a search for a cultural lineage that demands to be felt. Jamie returns to deal with his past, with Zahra live recording for her podcast series ‘Decolonising My Boyfriend’, and family tensions escalating on all sides as the wine flows. But the truth is more complicated than anyone anticipated. Katherine fights to hide an old wound, which, once opened, will reshape their family forever.
A fiery, character-driven comedy where the action happens around the kitchen table, this irreverent play is powered by a diverse cast of vibrant and relatable characters, ranging in age, gender and background. Cut Chilli explores a very specific form of complex trauma: this is not just another ‘identity play’, but a nuanced and insightful conversation around adoption trauma, cultural erasure, diasporic identity, and performative allyship
Inspired by pervasive adoption fraud in Sri Lanka, Cut Chilli is a banquet of cultural identity, displacement and ancestry. It is a play about difficult histories, and challenges both characters and the audience alike to find vulnerability, truth, and acceptance in the mess of family and belonging. No one leaves the table until someone tells the truth.
The Melbourne premiere assembles a fresh cast, crew and design team led by Director Isabella Vadiveloo, who brings to the play her dedication to politically engaged, form-pushing performances that centre underrepresented stories.
August 12 – 23
