The West Australian Academy of Performing Arts are working in conjunction with the Minderoo Foundations to present the world premiere of Reg Cribb’s new play Bullies.
“This is not a play that will wallow in victimhood,” award-winning playwright Cribb said, “When the lights go down on Bullies, it will be the resilience, humour and courage of the characters that will linger and resonate with the audience and leave them debating long after they have left the foyer.”
Cribb’s award-winning plays have been turned into feature films (Last Cab to Darwin, The Return – AKA Last Train to Freo), and co-wrote the screen play for the Aussie musical Bran Nue Dae. Now WAAPA’s 2nd year acting students will bring his latest work to the stage.
Working on Bullies, Cribb describes the challenge of ringing the right stories to encapsulate the complexities of bullying and intimidation in its many forms.
“This is a far-reaching issue that surely has touched most Millennials who have grown up in the modern era,” he says. “Most of us have experienced the paralysis of unwanted intimidation at some time in our lives. As the product of a Catholic boys’ boarding school in the 70’s, I know first-hand how debilitating such an experience can be on our psyche.”
Realising that no single story could do the subject justice, Cribb has crafted a collection of stories and songs based on real-life incidents from around the world. In performance, the stories performed by the Acting students will be linked by a soundtrack of high octane, original songs played by a live band.
“These stories mine the deep well of the human experience and how vulnerable we are when faced with bullying tactics, sometimes from people we have always trusted,” says Cribb.
“They are inspired by the zeitgeist of incidents we are confronted with every day such as the ‘Me Too’ campaign, school massacres, and sexting gone wrong. Bullies is a play for now about now.”
Bullies will be at ECU’s Enright Studio from October 12 – 18. Tickets and more information available from WAAPA.
Image:- Kathy Wheatley
