''Strangers in Between'' is a two-act Australian play by Tommy Murphy. It won the 2006

NSW Premier's Literary Award ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

for Best Play. It was first staged at Sydney's

Griffin Theatre Company Griffin Theatre Company is an Australian theatre specialising in new works, based in Sydney. Founded in 1979, it is the resident theatre company at the SBW Stables Theatre in Kings Cross. the artistic director is Declan Green. Artistic direct ...

in February 2005, where it broke box office records. It is published by

Currency Press Currency Press is a leading performing arts publisher and its oldest independent publisher still active. Their list includes plays and screenplays, professional handbooks, biographies, cultural histories, critical studies and reference works. H ...

with Murphy's stage adaptation of

Timothy Conigrave Tim Conigrave (19 November 1959 – 18 October 1994) was an Australian actor, activist and author of the internationally acclaimed memoir, ''Holding the Man.'' Education and career Conigrave was born in Melbourne, and attended the Jesuit-run ...

's ''

Holding the Man ''Holding the Man'' is a 1995 memoir by Australian writer, actor, and activist Timothy Conigrave. It tells of his 15-year love affair with John Caleo, which started when they met in the mid-1970s at Xavier College, an all-boys Jesuit Cathol ...

''. It is published in the UK by

Nick Hern Books Nick Hern Books is a London-based independent specialist publisher of plays, theatre books and screenplays. The company was founded by the former Methuen drama editor Nicholas Hern in 1988. History Nick Hern Books was founded in June 1988,Sara ...

Synopsis

''Strangers in Between'' explores brotherhood. Shane flees his family in regional

Goulburn Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of the Australian state of New South Wales, approximately south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters pate ...

and finds himself in Sydney's Kings Cross. He attempts to build a surrogate family in the city. He confuses the two families. The city lover he worships is doubled and morphed with the brother he fears. Peter, an older man who is dealing with the imminent death of his elderly mother, is himself rendered maternal by the needs of runaway Shane.

Reviews

A reviewer of the first UK performance wrote that:

Tommy Murphy’s ''Strangers in Between'' is one of the most beautifully written, achingly honest, and devastating insights into the life of a person growing up in a world that refuses to understand who that person truly is. Full of hope, raucous ribaldry, and sweet, tender moments of connection between disparate souls who eventually form a family,... It is wrapped in love, acceptance and understanding. Absolutely unmissable.

The Age describes the 2018 Melbourne revival of the play as "a three-hander exploring, with sharp humour and emotional nuance, the passions and fears of growing up gay... a story so funny and tender and wild, and so beautifully acted, that anyone might recognise and connect with it". The Times critic in London wrote a four star review for the play. "Murphy unspools his dramatic premise neatly and with minimal contrivance, abetted by this admirably economical production’s almost ceremonially efficient scene changes. Yet what really hooks us into the people on stage is the cast’s three-dimensional grasp of character and their expertise with the rhythms of Murphy’s dialogue. Stephen Connery-Brown evinces especially crack timing as Peter, a mature male who is far more protector than predator. Dan Hunter manages the tricky task of essaying two roles – decent Will and manipulative Ben – with considerable aplomb. Pivotally, Roly Botha rides the edgy emotional rollercoaster that is Shane with a tender, bruised charm. The boy is insecure, even unstable; nervous to the point of paranoia; desperately needy and at times thoughtlessly impulsive and blunt. Yet we come to care about him. Sex, meanwhile, is treated with humorous candour. The key to understanding Murphy’s men is about much more than what they do in bed." The Independent's critic lauded the play as deserving of its West End transfer. "...wise and witty coming-of-age play about facing fears, about friendships forged across the generations, and about making your own surrogate family. The tone combines the sharp and the sweet, the charmingly funny, the slightly rose-tinted and the completely explicit". The original 2005 production was summed up by Sydney's Sun Herald critic Colin Rose. "…there’s an honesty and openness to Murphy's writing that is irresistibly heart-warming, an appeal which, I imagine, is pretty much universal". Sun Herald

Details of premiere production

at the SBW Stables Theatre, Sydney, Australia.
17 February – 12 March 2005 Director:

David Berthold David Berthold is one of Australia's most prominent theatre directors and cultural leaders. He has directed for most of Australia's major theatre companies, as well as in London and Berlin, and has led several key arts organisations. He was Artis ...

Designer:

Alice Babidge Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

Lighting Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing dayli ...

: Anthony Pearson Shane – Sam Dunn
Peter – Anthony Phelan
Will/Ben – Brett Stiller

Selected Productions

27 – 31 May 2008

Riverside Theatre Parramatta Riverside Theatres is a multi-venue performing arts centre located in the CBD of Parramatta in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Opened in 1988, its venues include the 761-seat proscenium arch Riverside Theatre, the 213 ...

(part of a national tour) 23 July – 16 August 2009 Store Room Theatre,

North Fitzroy Fitzroy North is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cites of Merri-bek and Yarra local government areas. Fitzroy North recorded a population of 12,7 ...

1–3 August 2013

University of Wollongong The University of Wollongong (abbreviated as UOW) is an Australian public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney. As of 2017, the university had an enrolment ...

21 June – 16 July 2016 UK premiere at the

King's Head Theatre The King's Head Theatre, founded in 1970 by Dan Crawford, is an off-West End venue in London. It is the second oldest operating pub theatre in the UK. In 2021, Mark Ravenhill became Artistic Director and the theatre focusses on producing LGBT ...

. 10 January 2017 – 4 February 2017 West end transfer

Inner London Inner London is the name for the group of London boroughs which form the interior part of Greater London and are surrounded by Outer London. With its origins in the bills of mortality, it became fixed as an area for statistics in 1847 and was use ...

New season 24 January – 11 February 2018

Forty Five Downstairs 40 (forty) is the natural number following 39 and preceding 41. Though the word is related to "four" (4), the spelling "forty" replaced "fourty" in the course of the 17th century and is now the standard form. In mathematics *Forty is a com ...

for

Midsumma Festival Midsumma Festival is an annual celebration of LGBTQIA+ arts and cultures, held annually for 22 days across January and February in Melbourne, Australia. The festival began as a one-week celebration of gay pride in 1989. The festival has expand ...

http://www.fortyfivedownstairs.com/wp2016/event/strangers-tommy-murphy/ 14 February – 2 March transfer to

Seymour Centre The Seymour Centre is a multi-purpose performing arts centre within the University of Sydney in the Australian city of Sydney. It is located on the corner of City Rd and Cleveland St in Chippendale, just south-west of the city centre. The ...

for

Mardi Gras Festival ''Mardi: and a Voyage Thither'' is the third book by American writer Herman Melville, first published in London in 1849. Beginning as a travelogue in the vein of the author's two previous efforts, the adventure story gives way to a romance story ...

, Cameron Lukey Presents and Don't be Down Productions.

Awards

* Winner, 2006

for Best Play ($15,000) * Nomination, 2006

Australian Writers' Guild Award The AWGIE Awards is an annual awards ceremony conducted by the Australian Writers' Guild The Australian Writers' Guild (AWG) is the professional association for Australian performance writers for film, television, radio, theatre, video and n ...

(AWGIE) for Best Play

References

{{Reflist Australian plays 2005 plays