Life As We Know It

Overview

2012 was a big year for theatrical representations of the process of ageing. Austrian film Amour has garnered all sorts of buzz for its painfully honest portrayal of what it's like to face your own mortality, and Colin Friels was utterly unforgettable as the fading father figure Willy Loman in Belvoir's raw retelling of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.

Carriageworks' new stage production Life As We Know It offers a startlingly modern and quintessentially Australian perspective on growing old. The production features seven senior citizens from the Campbelltown suburb of Minto sharing with audiences the trials and tribulations of ageing in a world that is rapidly and endlessly modernising itself. Everything from love and companionship to gardening and suburban life are brought to the stage, showing how the simple and even mundane details of everyday life can in fact be quite extraordinary.

With acclaimed director Rosie Dennis — renowned for her capacity to tear down the fourth wall in favour of intimate and realistic performer-audience relationships — at the helm, Life As We Know It is a deeply personal exploration of what it's like to grow old in Australia.