Sugarland – ATYP

Overview

In 2011, playwrights Rachael Coopes and Wayne Blair took part in a series of residencies in the small town of Katherine in the Northern Territory. They'd been commissioned by the Australian Theatre for Young People to write a story that would give audiences an insight into what it was like to grow up in the more remote corners of our country.

The result is Sugarland — a variously hilarious and haunting tale about a largely invisible teenage Australia. "This is a play that makes us reassess our national identity and what it is to be Australian," co-director Fraser Corfield says. "It reminds us that to be young is not necessarily to be innocent, and hardship doesn't extinguish humour."

The play premiered at the Darwin Festival earlier this month, before transferring to Sydney. ATYP is continually challenging expectations about 'youth theatre', and with Sugarland — their first fully professional production since 1978 — they seem to be boldly continuing in that direction.