Mary Rachel Brown – August 19 2018

Mary is the recipient of many awards. Her work has been given showcased public readings by The National Playwriting Festival (Australia), hotINK Festival (New York), and The English Speaking Theatre (Berlin). Mary’s other plays include All My Sleep and Waking, Australian Gothic, Permission to Spin, Last Letters and National Security and the Art of Taxidermy. She has written an adaptation of Die Fledermaus for the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and has written several television scripts including The Elegant Gentleman’s Guide to Knife Fighting and Home and Away. Mary was a resident artist at the Griffin Theatre Company in 2015.

Inside Out
Australian Script Centre; premiere 2008
90 minutes; 1 female, 1 male
What do you do when a loved one changes beyond recognition or the rational world is taken away from you? A mother and her young adult son share a flat and have the usual trying relationship. When the son’s behaviour becomes ever stranger, Mum realises that action needs to be taken. A journey into one young man’s mind, to the place where borders are shifting and battle lines are drawn, this play looks at our very selfhood and how we survive when it is taken away. It captures the angst of dealing with mental illness and affirms that it can be dealt with, and that sufferers can still lead satisfying lives.

The Dapto Chaser
Australian Script Centre; premiere 2011
80 minutes; Preferred cast size: 4; Number of roles: 5 (Errol and the race caller can be doubled)
Meet the Sinclairs, a family where dog racing is more than a sport, it’s a religion. When Errol dies of lung cancer, he is broke. Cess rigs a dog race to raise money for his fathers’ funeral, but his brother mistakenly bets on the wrong dog, and Cess’s greyhound must be sold to Errol’s old archenemy. Set amid the adrenaline, sweat and guts of the dog racing sub-culture, this play is about a family trapped in the pressure cooker of gambling addiction, forced to gamble the most important commodity of all – their relationship to each other.