“Away”

By Michael Gow

Directed by Emily Broadbent

Co-Direction by Natalie Taylor

Now part of the year 12 curriculum, this play traces three ordinary, yet very different, families setting off on their Christmas holidays during the summer of 1967-68.

Directors notes:

 Away - the latest effort from Nat and myself - is one of those fabulous Australian scripts with all the right doses of humour, heartbreak and humanity for a drama-hungry audience. Written by Michael Gow, it is set in the summer of 1967-68 and follows three families who head off on their Christmas holiday rituals. But this summer is not about getting away from it all - it's about everything catching up with these characters.

Vic and Harry are English immigrants, both factory workers struggling to give dying son Tom a Christmas holiday to remember. Roy and Coral lost their son in the Vietnam War, but the battle continues at home as their relationship - under fire - crawls limp and wounded from his death. Gwen and Jim struggled through the depression to provide a better life for their daughter Meg. But, Gwen burdened by past demons, tears down her daughter and husband to keep herself afloat.

May-Brit Akerhold wrote: "Gow's characters are imprisoned in a world in which their, worth as human beings is measured in the cost of their holidays ... the aim is to be the same as everyone else as long as that means to better than one's neighbour"

Emily Broadbent