Mayday! Playwrights Festival

Overview

Mayday! Playwrights Festival is taking over TAP Gallery for a three-week program in May with a showcase of short-form theatre works written by a collection of Australia's premier contemporary writers. The essence of the festival is impulsive, instinctive and immediate. It has given Australian playwrights the opportunity to take their work from the page to the stage in a much shorter time frame than usual.

The festival is a celebration of collaboration, with the works on show the product of responses to a call-out by festival directors Jeremy Waters and Augusta Supple demanding "Help! We have an empty space, can you help us fill it?" Answers abounded in the form of established and emerging playwrights, actors and directors, and the festival was created.

The season features three different shows, with each show playing for four nights in its respective week. Week one (May 8-11) sees the works of award-winning playwright collective 7-ON brought to life in the provocative No Nudity, Weapons or Naked Flames, directed by Mayday! festival co-director Augusta Supple. The second week will bring a collection of monologues to the main stage in The Solitudes and introduce Australia to a host of beautifully crafted characters before Little Gods rounds out the festival with the intricately intertwined playwright and directing debut of AFI Award-winning actor Nicholas Hope.

"The overwhelming interest and response to our Mayday! Festival is proof that our theatre community is brave, bold and ready," says Supple. So be one of the bold and answer the call of Mayday!.