Belvoir’s back in full swing after Anita Hegh heralded its stunning return playing an empowering take on Virginia Woolf in A Room of One’s Own. Now the laughs pile up in Cursed! Which is about as funny a meta take on 2020 as any play title could be.
The show runs until November 29, and you can grab tickets here. It stars Chenoa Deemal (Black Cockatoo) as Bernadette, who return home to Geraldton bracing for impact. Her siblings are mad as cut snakes, and their brand of craziness pales into insignificance compared to the oldies. A simple conversation can spiral into a cyclone of screaming fits. But her nan’s dying, and there’s no getting away from familial duty. Is the clan cursed, or can they make a new break and start afresh?
The show is written by Jaru woman Kodie Bedford, Belvoir’s 2019 Balnaves Fellow, who says there may be some similarity with real life. “Most people inherit money from their families. I inherited crazy. I thought it was a curse. But now I can make money by writing about it.”
As directed by Jason Klarwein (My Name is Jimi), the all-star cast also includes Love My Way and The Letdown fave Sacha Horler, Valerie Bader (Jesus Wants Me for A Sunbeam, Shirong Wu (White Pearl), Alex Stylianou (The Greater Sunrise) and Black Comedy regular Bjorn Stewart.
As Belvoir’s artistic director Eamon Flack says: “This this is a raucous six-hander with lines flying all over the place. It’s the perfect play for right now, a joyous mad comedy about struggle, loss, identity and trying to get the hell out of your home state.”
Love theatre? Check out Sydney Theatre Company's 2021 program.
