SLIGHTLY CRACKED
LA MAMA THEATRE - CARLTON COURTHOUSE
W R I T T E N B Y L I S A D A L L I N G E R &
J E N N I F E R M O N K
D I R E C T E D B Y J E N N I F E R M O N K
Mental Health Facilities. Funding Cuts. Family Dinners. Anyone has the potential to crack.
New mum Nadia is at crisis point and checks into the Head to Heath facility for some much needed respite. This new age facility provides free, around the clock mental healthcare as well as deluxe spa treatments, facials, yoga, cocktails and more… but is it all too good to be true?
Drawing upon real stories and interviews, this new work by Girls Act Good explores the often grotesque nature of mental health treatment for women over time, and aims to shine a light on women’s resilience in such circumstances, shedding shame and stigma for the future.
‘Slightly Cracked’ is a dark comedy and has been in development for three years. The collective went through a thorough creative development process, primarily focusing on women’s experiences in mental health institutions from the past through to the present, and exploring whether these places (particularly those of the past) helped women or in fact broke them in mind, body and spirit. This extensive research examining mental health treatment, and the buildings that house them, informs the play, its characters and events. Research consisted of excursions to ‘asylums’, research projects on specific people and institutions, interviews with people with mental ill health and people with experience being in mental health facilities, surveys from carers of people with mental ill health, surveys from people working in the mental health sector, along with the GAG members own personal experiences.
SCRIPT - IN - HAND PERFORMANCE OF
‘Village Wooing’
A S H T R E E S T U D I O
D I R E C T E D B Y J E N N I F E R M O N K
Opposites attract; Anyone in the village is good enough for me; but nobody in the village is good enough for you.
Village Wooing, A Comedietta for Two Voices is a play by Bernard Shaw written in 1933 and first performed in 1934. It has only two characters who are known as A and Z. The play is set in three parts – three conversations between the two on a ship and in a shop. It is no accident that the character’s names are A and Z, two very different personalities, up bringing, beliefs and class, one from either end of the social spectrum. The play deals with sex magnetism, which is more than physical attraction or sexual appetite between two people. Shaw combined ironic with weighty commentary on a variety of social issues, advocating for the working class, whom he felt was badly exploited.
In Shaw’s play, A is portrayed as a male and Z a female. However, in this adaption both characters are female, disrobing any bias of gender and battle of the sexes stereotypes, keeping the focus on the exploration of the character’s individual ideals and dreams of love and life.
88 years on, Shaw’s spectacular language, morals on the working class and social status ideals are still relevant and play a huge part in our lifestyles and relationships today. Sexual attraction can occur without any evidence between two extremely unlikely people, and in 2021’s social climate we believe people are now more open about who they can care for.
A says that ‘it’s people’s characters that impress me’. We have created a simplistic world, a ship and a shop where two people can battle it out to clearly see each others character traits and identify if they can have a life and love together.
“We have tried to neutralise all the gender specific phrases. We wanted to focus on exploring the class system that society has shaped us and our minds to think, rather than men are from mars and women are from Venus theory.” – Jennifer Monk
Performed by Emma Jo McKay and Lee McClenaghan.
SCRIPT - IN - HAND PERFORMANCE OF
‘THE BEAR’
A S H T R E E S T U D I O
D I R E C T E D B Y L I S A D A L L I N G E R
Death, a debt and infidelity form a lethal combination in this play-off between a desperate man and a grieving woman.’
Through this Script-in-Hand performance, Girls Act Good cast a fresh gaze over a classic work. This performance saw the play up on its feet with a director’s vision, elements of production design and the actors working from scripts to explore the characters, relationships and themes in depth.
A play in one act, Chekhov’s ‘The Bear’ written in 1888, takes place on the seventh-month anniversary of the death of Popova’s husband. Despite her employee Luka’s attempts to get her outside and functioning again, Popova has locked herself in the house in mourning since her husband’s death. When Smirnov arrives to collect a debt and Popova is unable to pay right away, the situation escalates quickly. Smirnov refuses to leave, as he is desperate for the money to pay for his mortgage due the next day.
Whilst the argument begins with Smirnov’s insistence on staying until the money is paid, it quickly turns into a debate about true love and faithfulness according to the different genders. A duel is soon set, guns are fetched and emotions run high, the line between anger and passion, and love and hate becoming dangerously blurred. This interpretation of Chekhov’s classic placed the setting in the current day on a rural horse training property and put a modern twist on proceedings so that we were forced to question who ‘the bear’ really is.
Performed by Jennifer Monk, Emma Jo McKay and Kevin Dee.
LADIES OF THE BAY
L A M A M A M O B I L E &
C A S T L E M A I N E F R I N G E
D I R E C T E D B Y J E N N I F E R M O N K
Ladies of the Bay is a fun, vivacious, new piece of theatre inspired by real stories. Over the summer Jennifer interviewed women from rural Victoria and Melbourne about their experiences growing up in the Australian summer.
“The play is 90% material and stories that have come from these conversations. Twenty women were interviewed and generously shared their stories with me, from there four diverse characters were emerged being Tracy, Nat, Fiona and Naomi.” – Jennifer Monk
After a successful creative development with the Clocktower Centre Studio Residency Program this nostalgic new work based on real stories has emerged. Ladies of the Bay focuses on four women who are hanging out at the local caravan park. They have shared extreme tragedies but still manage to triumph from their experiences. Exploring private female moments including relationships, love, secrets, disasters and grief this show will take you laughing and crying back to your own summers. Sometimes all we have are the memories.
Performed by Lisa Dallinger, Kelley Kerr Young, Lee McClenaghan and Jennifer Monk.
Assisstant Director: Constance Washington
“The performances so excellent as to make the naturalistic style of presentation seem so easy, familiar and very real.”
A CHRISTMAS TALE
T H E B U T T E R F L Y C L U B
D I R E C T E D B Y
J E N N I F E R M O N K
Girls Act Good were delighted to return to The Butterfly Club with their verbatim show A Christmas Tale.
This fresh, exciting work is inspired by real-life conversations and stories about Christmas from women across Australia. The play takes a comedic and heartfelt look at the Aussie festivities and celebrates how we can come together to remember the Magic of Christmas.
Performed by Constance Washington, Kelley Kerr Young, Lisa Dallinger, Emma Jo McKay, Tegan Jones and Shanon Kulupach.
THE ASSOCIATION
T H E A T R E I M M E R S I V E E V E N T
D I R E C T E D B Y
L E E Mc C L E N A G A H A N
W R I T T E N B Y P E R R I C U M M I N G S
A raw and disturbingly domestic psychological thriller, with splashes of black humour and moments of true humanity, where the idea of “the perfect life” is stripped down before the audience’s eyes.
Drawing inspiration from Frankenstein, The Stepford Wives and the Country Women’s Association (CWA), The Association is set in a secret women’s association meeting where a select group of women have been invited to take part in a bold new program. The meeting's agenda quickly changes from the perfect recipe for jam sponge to how to create the perfect partner... and a horrific experiment is revealed.
Producer and GAG founder – Jennifer Monk, attended a Country Women’s Association meeting in rural Victoria for research on this project. She was overwhelmed by the generosity the branch displayed in their dedicated efforts to assist community groups. Jennifer decided to incorporate this angle into the project, inspiring the Perri Cummings, the script writer, to include outreach groups from the local area. The Association shined a light on both the McAuley Community Services for Women (MCSW) and GROW within the piece.
This immersive piece of theatre was in a real house in the inner west Number 64, Yarraville. This allowed the audience to have an authentic experience and to conceptualise the character’s true needs and surroundings. This new work was developed, financed, written, produced and staged by Girls Act Good and had a sold out two week season.
The creative team and cast donated their time to this project, with proceeds of all ticket sales from this theatre event going directly to funding the film production of The Association – a short feature.
Performed by Jennifer Monk, Lisa Dallinger, Kelley Kerr Young, Perri Cummings, Hannah Davies, Emily Joy, Lee McClenaghan, Samuel Burton and Ethan Back.
A LADY SHOT
L A M A M A E X P L O R A T I O N S E A S O N
D I R E C T E D B Y J E N N I F E R M O N K
D E V I S E D B Y G I R L S A C T G O O D
S C R I P T E D I T O R P E R R I C U M M I N G S
An exploration of classical and historical women thrown into modern settings to see how far we have come - and prove that some things may never change. How will Joan of Arc, Medea, Juliet and Wonder Woman shatter the glass ceiling and navigate the complexities of life today? A funny, physical and messy celebration of womanhood and our continuing fight for equality and the right to be ourselves.
A Lady Shot was performed by Sarah Clarke, Lisa Dallinger, Lee McClenaghan, Jennifer Monk, Sarah Plummer, Kelley Kerr Young and Constance Washington.
““Girls Act Good, an all-female troupe, generate their own material – with all the risks that implies. But here Jennifer Monk keeps things rolling along, the cast is immensely likeable, the show has that elusive thing ‘heart’””
a secret meeting for women, by women
“Girls Act Good is a collective of talented women who should be more widely known and widely seen. In this production – an ‘immersive theatre’ evening, directed by Lee McClenaghan – Perri Cummings and her collaborators have come up with a show that is at once inventive, creepy, satirical and witty.”
This project was supported by Auspicious Arts Projects and was funded via campaigns with The Australian Cultural Fund
A CHRISTMAS TALE
D E V I S E D B Y
J E N N I F E R M O N K,
C O N S T A N C E W A S H I N G T O N
A N D S A R A H P L U M M E R
Jennifer Monk, Sarah Plummer and Constance Washington were delighted to bring their newest Australian play A Christmas Tale, as presented by Girls Act Good (GAG), to The Butterfly Club. This fresh, exciting work was inspired by real-life conversations and stories about Christmas from women across Australia. The play takes a comedic and heartfelt look at the Aussie festivities and celebrates how we can come together to remember the Magic of Christmas.
Not just the premier of A Christmas Tale, this event also raised money and awareness for McAuley Community Services for Women. 100% of the profits from the show were be donated to the wonderful people who are engaged in such incredible work for women and their families.
Performed by Perri Cummings, Jessica Gerger, Lee McClenaghan, Jennifer Monk, Michelle Pastor, Sarah Plummer, Constance Washington and Kelley Kerr Young.
