Griffin Theatre Company Presents DEAD CAT BOUNCE

Winner of the 2016 Lysicrates Prize, Dead Cat Bounce is Mary Rachel Brown's darkly funny portrayal of unrequited love and addiction, premiering at Griffin Theatre Company from 22 February - 6 April 2019.

As if their 20-year age gap wasn't trouble enough, Matilda's fighting for space with Gabe's long-time bedfellows: misery, booze and writerly angst. She's not even convinced he's over his ex-girlfriend and publisher Angela, who was hooked on picking up his pieces.

If Gabe wants to get sober, he'll have to abandon his image as a tragic writer betrothed to the bottle. And if Angela's really trying to let Gabe go, like her partner Tony needs her to, she should probably say goodbye to Gabe's wretched cat-which she's somehow still looking after.

Taking its title from a financial sector term whereby stocks experience a temporary recovery from a long-term decline (borrowed, in turn, from the idea that even a dead cat will bounce if you drop it from a great height), Mary Rachel Brown wields her razor-sharp wit to ask painfully familiar questions around romance and addiction: how do we find the strength to be loved? Why do we cling to people intent on pushing us away? And how do we shake off the past, when the bastard won't stop tailing us?

Teaming up Brown's deft understanding of human fallibility with director Mitchell Butel's comedic expertise, Dead Cat Bounce finds humour in the everyday mire, with characters that hit rock bottom, and keep digging.

Lee Lewis, Artistic Director of Griffin Theatre Company says: "Dead Cat Bounce is a story we can all recognise about loving the wrong person, at least the person who's wrong for us. Mary Rachel Brown is doing exactly what she does best: digging around in the muck of absolutely ordinary, complex, funny, darkly humorous relationships."

Dead Cat Bounce stars Kate Cheel, who recently appeared in the AACTA award-winning ABC TV mini-series, Riot and as the lead in Alena Lodkina's breakout film, Strange Colours, heralded as the best Australian feature of 2017 (Jason Di Rosso, ABC RN film critic) and an "audacious new voice in Australian cinema" (The Guardian). Lucia Mastrantone last graced the SBW Stables stage in Kill Climate Deniers, followed by a turn in Sydney Theatre Company's two-part theatre epic, The Harp in the South. Her TV credits include The Letdown, Home & Away and Pacific Heat. Josh Quong Tart's versatile stage and screen career has taken him from Underbelly and Home & Away to Muriel's Wedding the Musical and The Lion King. Johnny Nasser is a fellow stage and screen actor, known for films such as Convict, Flotsam Jetsam, and the forthcoming The Combination: Redemption.

One of Australia's most recognisable actors, singers and directors, Mitchell Butel was recently appointed Artistic Director of State Theatre Company of South Australia. Over the last 10 years he has expanded his practice into directing, putting his spin on everything from chamber musical theatre to text-based works and large-scale operas. In 2016, he was awarded a Sydney Theatre Award for his direction of the musical, Violet. The four-time Helpmann Award winner (most recently for Mr Burns - A Post Electric Play) has performed in more than 100 professional theatre productions.

As a 30-year veteran of playwriting, Mary Rachel Brown's credits include the warts-and-all comedy about dog racing subculture, The Dapto Chaser; the raw family drama about the impending death of a parent, All My Sleep And Waking; and the black comedy about three men who discover their music is being used as a torture mechanism, Permission to Spin, amongst many others.

Bookings: 02 9361 3817 or griffintheatre.com.au

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