Out on the edge of a satellite city, is Burra Creek, home to the world’s largest online retail warehouse, and tonight Pam (Kat Stewart) is working the nightshift, while her daughter Rae, back home, is also pulling an all-nighter, for very different reasons.
City folks drive the highway to Burra Creek for the op-shops, Biryani and famous kebab, but for the kids, there’s not so much to do, except hang with someone who makes you laugh, dances with shopping trolleys, and who you wouldn’t mind kissing.
No one sees Pam, as she catches three buses to the warehouse while the rest of us sleep, but as her night unfolds, she sees a better life for her daughter, and she’ll stop at nothing to secure it. Sometimes you’ve got to break the rules to break the cycle. And while Rae is at the top of her class, it’s hard to climb the rungs of opportunity when you live in a place the NBN forgot.
Break of Day is a story where humour is armour, grit is generosity, and the universal struggle between a mum and her daughter, is everything.
Premiering at Malthouse Theatre after winning the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award and The Australian Writers Guild Prize for Playwriting, Steve Rodgers’ Break of Day also sees Sarah Goodes and Kat Stewart collaborate again after the success of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Red Stitch, Comedy Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company). This is a story that asks how far determination can go to change the course.
August 7 – 29
malthousethetare.com.au
