One of Australia’s favourite and most respected actors and presenters, Noni Hazlehurst AM performs her critically acclaimed one woman show Mother at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Fairfax Theatre from 4 – 15 September 2024.
Written by Australian playwright Daniel Keene specially for Hazlehurst as her first one-woman show, Mother tells the story of Christie, a homeless woman in a world detached, unforgiving and destructive. Christie is a great survivor, a storyteller, comical and dramatic. Hazlehurst adeptly portrays Christie – feisty and also defeated, angry yet loving, and ultimately characterised by honesty, wit and self-deprecation.
The play speaks of denial, ignorance and free-falling poverty. Utterly devastating, yet written with Keene’s characteristic lyricism, the award-winning show is wrought with tenderness, violence, black humour and loneliness in equal measure.
Directed with great acclaim by Matt Scholten, the 75-minute drama has awakened many people to issues surrounding motherhood, poverty, homelessness in middle age and isolation.
Universally praised by critics and audiences, Mother has had sold out seasons in Sydney and Brisbane. In 2018, Noni Hazlehurst was the recipient of the Matilda Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. The production also won the 2015 Drama Victoria Award for Best Performance by a Theatre Company, was nominated for two Helpmann Awards® including Best Performance by a Female Actor and Best Regional Touring Production and was a finalist in the 2016 Performing Arts Connections Australia Tour of the Year Awards.
Noni Hazlehurst is a celebrated film, theatre and television actor, beloved Play School presenter, host of Better Homes and Gardens and most recently Every Family Has A Secret (SBS). She has one of the most impressive and wide-ranging careers in the business with television credits including Foxtel’s A Place to Call Home, ABC’s The Letdown, The Broken Shore and Redfern Now along with recent feature films Ladies in Black, Truth and The Mule. In 2016, she was inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame.
September 4 – 14
Image: Brett Boardman
