WORLD PROBLEMS Opens in May at Southbank Theatre, The Lawler

Emma Mary Hall’s World Problems is a bid for change, reminding us all of the responsibility we have to Planet Earth. Seamlessly merging intimate reflections with a world spanning perspective, World Problems will begin previews on 3 May, followed by a regional tour from 28 May to 7 June, calling at Mt Helen, Mildura, Bendigo, Drysdale, and Traralgon.

Written by Emma Mary Hall, World Problems was first performed at fortyfivedownstairs in March 2019, by Hall herself, and won a 2020 Green Room Award for Best New Writing. This production by Melbourne Theatre Company, presented as part of their award-winning Education & Families program, is performed with vivid physicality by Carly Sheppard (Love), directed by Cassandra Fumi (Associate Director, A Very Jewish Christmas Carol), set and costume design by Dann Barber (Bloom), lighting design by Harrie Hogan (kerosene), composition and sound design by Rachel Lewindon (The Gospel According to Jesus Queen of Heaven) and movement consultation by Amelia Jean O’Leary (Staunch ASF).

A woman summons up her childhood with an intensity so visceral it seems to be playing out in front of us. But as her memories draw closer to the present, the space between the personal and the speculative grows ever blurrier. Where do we end, and everything else begins. An elegy for the future we’re yet to inherit, World Problems is both comical and terrifying, gripping and cathartic. A solo time capsule catapulting across the ages.

“In Hall’s world memories are tangible” says Melbourne Theatre Company’s Artistic Director & Co-CEO Anne-Louise Sarks. “This bold dystopian study uses the intimate experience of reminiscence to investigate humankind and our future. It is plays like this which remind us about the importance of new writing, and I am thrilled the regional tour will give a broad platform to a fresh new voice.” 

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.