A confronting play tackling domestic violence has won a Kingsville writer a place in the Melbourne Writers’ Theatre one-act play competition.
Paul Mitchell’s Ragdoll was one of five plays selected for a three-week season this month as part of the Darklight series of one-act plays.
Mitchell said it was satisfying to know the challenging play would make it to a stage after four years in the works.
“I was talking with Helen Garner a lot while she was writing This House of Grief, her book about the trial of Robert Farquharson, who killed his children by driving them into a dam near Winchelsea,” he said.
“I was also working on Ragdoll at the time, a play that tries through art to understand domestic violence that most of us want to ignore. But the job of art is to be an agent of change, and this work asks us to consider if we’re doing enough to prevent domestic tragedies.”
Ragdoll will be directed by Jacaranda Theatre artistic director Debra Low, starring Silas James in three roles.
“Debra and Silas have been brilliant to work with and I can’t wait until opening night to see how they bring the work alive,” Mitchell said.
Darklight opens this Thursday and runs until October 25 at La Mama Courthouse, 349 Drummond Street, Carlton.
For more details and bookings, visit goo.gl/PQ7sF0
