Award-Winning Play FIGHTING To Have World Premiere At New Theatre
Running 18 March - 12 April 2025.
By: A.A. Cristi Feb. 17, 2025
New Theatre will present the world premiere of FIGHTING by Sydney writer Xavier Coy, which won the Silver Gull Play Award in 2022. Running 18 March - 12 April 2025.
Directed by the playwright, it features a cast of three actors returning to the New Theatre stage: Jay James-Moody (The Venetian Twins), Sophie Highmore (Ink) and David Woodland (When the Rain Stops Falling, Wolf Lullaby).
Xavier explains what prompted this deeply personal play: "I wrote this play in the weeks after being diagnosed with Bipolar disorder. I’d spent a long time struggling with my mental health and after finally receiving my diagnosis and facing life with an answer, I did a lot of introspection and looked into how Bipolar was depicted and understood. It was pretty upsetting to see how my disease was being represented. That’s what led to me writing 'Fighting'.
"This play is raw and by far the most personal I’ve ever written. I had to write it that way in order to achieve what I wanted: the help the audience to understand that we’re not crazy. The difficulties are deeply rooted in psychology and thought patterns which attach themselves to physical symptoms and states. But I didn’t want to write trauma porn. This play needed comedy throughout because if you don’t laugh then you cry. Ultimately, I want an audience to do both those things and in the process be able to empathize a little because things that most people experience, sadness, anxiety, fear, are in Bipolar, just to a much more intense level."
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