VDL Awards Entries 2019

Sensible lives thrown into chaos by questions and imagination.

With her world unexpectedly upturned academic and writer Gillian Galbraith retreats into the history she has been researching, and unwittingly releases vivid lives and voices from the past. But her buddy Carol is having none of that – there’s way too much important stuff in the here and now…

As with her previous play ‘Wild Dogs’, Haughton delves into the lives of real people living in Gippsland. The play explores the connections we struggle with to find our place, and untangles the stories of the past on which we have built our present. It’s a compelling and compassionate weaving of contemporary and historical women’s stories, both myth and fact.

The result is a magical journey for everyone who loves a good story or two.

Mysterious playboy Charles Bruno and architect Guy Haines are complete strangers who just happen to meet in the dining car of a train. Because they are strangers, Charles remarks that “they can say anything they like” to one another. So much so, that he proposes the perfect murder. He will kill Guy’s unfaithful wife, and in return, Guy will kill Charles’ much hated father. When they part, Guy never imagines that he will ever see Charles again or that Charles was serious. But, he was. Deadly serious. Having completed his ‘side’ of the bargain, Charles puts the squeeze on Guy to do the same or he will reveal everything to the police. Paralysed by fear, Guy’s life soon turns into a game of ‘do or die’.

A gripping study of a jury locked up in a New York court of law, in stifling summer heat, to consider their verdict of a young coloured man accused of murdering his father. This play is an account of white, mostly middle-class jurors that favour a vote of guilty in this open-and-shut case- that is all but one, who thinks a reasonable doubt exists. So begins a penetrating examination of how men struggle to deliver justice in a world where prejudice, racism and privilege hold such strong sway, often below the surface.

This tragicomedy relates the story of the three Magrath sisters, Meg, Babe, and Lenny, who reunite at Old Granddaddy’s home in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, after Babe shoots her abusive husband. The sisters were raised in a dysfunctional family with a penchant for ugly predicaments. Each has endured her share of hardship and misery. Past resentments bubble to the surface as the sisters are forced to deal with assorted relatives and past relationships while coping with Babe’s latest incident. Each sister is forced to face the consequences of the crimes of the heart she has committed.