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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'On the banks of the Georges River, Radha and her son Siddhartha release the ashes of Radha’s mother – their final connection to the past, to Sri Lanka and its struggles. Now they are free to embrace their lives in Australia. Then a phone call from Colombo brings the past spinning back to life, and we are plunged into an epic story of love and political strife, of home and exile, of parents and children
'Counting and Cracking is a big new play about Australia like none we’ve seen before. This is life on a large canvas, so we are leaving Belvoir St and building a Sri Lankan town hall inside Sydney Town Hall. Sixteen actors play four generations of a family, from Colombo to Pendle Hill, in a story about Australia as a land of refuge, about Sri Lanka’s efforts to remain united, about reconciliation within families, across countries, across generations.'
Source: Belvoir St Theatre.
Notes
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Additional Awards:
2019 Helpmann Awards
Best Scenic Design (winner).
Best Sound Design (winner).
Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play (winner).
Best Male Actor in a Play (winner).
Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play (nominated).
Production Details
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Produced by Belvoir St Theatre, 11 January - 2 February 2019, Sydney Town Hall. co-produced with Co-Curious.
Director: Eamon Flack.
Cultural Advisor: Anandavalli.
Set & Costume Designer: Dale Ferguson.
Sound Designer & Composer: Stefan Gregory.
Lighting Designer: Damien Cooper.
Cast: Prakash Belawadi, Nicholas Brown, Jay Emmanuel, Rarriwuy Hick, Nadie Kammallaweera, Monica Kumar, Gandhi MacIntyre, Shiv Palekar, Monroe Reimers, Hazem Shammas, Nipuni Sharada, Vaishnavi Suryaprakash, and Sukania Venugopal.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Powerful Epic of Love and War, Exile and Reconciliation
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian , 17 January 2019; (p. 9)
— Review of Counting and Cracking 2019 single work drama'One of the characters in this political family drama sums up the crisis in Sri Lanka in 1957, when the United National Party proposed removing Tamil as a language and adopting a Sinhala-only policy, as “two languages, one country; one language, two countries”.' (Introduction)
-
[Review] : ‘Counting and Cracking’
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Monthly , October no. 160 2019; (p. 52)
— Review of Counting and Cracking 2019 single work drama -
Helpmann Awards Show Theatre Is Winning Diversity Race in Australian Entertainment
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , July 2019;'Diversity has finally triumphed in Australian live entertainment, with key categories of the 19th Helpmann Awards going to a Sri Lankan immigrant family saga and a rollicking Indigenous musical.' (Introduction)
-
A Modern Epic
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , March no. 469 2019; (p. 8)'Speaking to The Adelaide Review after Counting and Cracking's premiere season in Sydney, director Eamon Flack is overwhelmed by the response to the three-and-a-half hour Sri Lankan/Australian epic written by S. Shakthidharan [Shakthi] that features renowned actors from across the globe.'
-
Counting and Cracking : The Story behind Belvoir Street Theatre's Most Ambitious Play to Date
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 17 January 2019;'As epic and Australian as Cloudstreet or The Secret River, the multilingual play charts a family from Colombo in the 50s, through the Sri Lankan civil war, finally arriving in western Sydney in the 21st Century.' (Introduction)
-
[Review] : ‘Counting and Cracking’
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Monthly , October no. 160 2019; (p. 52)
— Review of Counting and Cracking 2019 single work drama -
Powerful Epic of Love and War, Exile and Reconciliation
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian , 17 January 2019; (p. 9)
— Review of Counting and Cracking 2019 single work drama'One of the characters in this political family drama sums up the crisis in Sri Lanka in 1957, when the United National Party proposed removing Tamil as a language and adopting a Sinhala-only policy, as “two languages, one country; one language, two countries”.' (Introduction)
-
Counting and Cracking : The Story behind Belvoir Street Theatre's Most Ambitious Play to Date
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 17 January 2019;'As epic and Australian as Cloudstreet or The Secret River, the multilingual play charts a family from Colombo in the 50s, through the Sri Lankan civil war, finally arriving in western Sydney in the 21st Century.' (Introduction)
-
A Modern Epic
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: The Adelaide Review , March no. 469 2019; (p. 8)'Speaking to The Adelaide Review after Counting and Cracking's premiere season in Sydney, director Eamon Flack is overwhelmed by the response to the three-and-a-half hour Sri Lankan/Australian epic written by S. Shakthidharan [Shakthi] that features renowned actors from across the globe.'
-
Helpmann Awards Show Theatre Is Winning Diversity Race in Australian Entertainment
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , July 2019;'Diversity has finally triumphed in Australian live entertainment, with key categories of the 19th Helpmann Awards going to a Sri Lankan immigrant family saga and a rollicking Indigenous musical.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2020 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting
- 2020 winner Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Victorian Prize for Literature
- 2020 winner Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Prize for Drama
- 2019 winner Sydney Theatre Awards — Best New Australian Work
- 2019 winner Sydney Theatre Awards — Best Direction of a Mainstage Production
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cSri Lanka,cSouth Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
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Colombo,
cSri Lanka,cSouth Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
- Pendle Hill, Parramatta area, Sydney, New South Wales,