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'Stories of Love and Deception is a keenly engaging discussion of our most dearly-held values and their ramifications. Ludicrous and incisive, this collection invites us to confront those questions of morality most threatening to life as we know it. Day One, A Hotel, Evening - Graciously irreverent, this play explores the revelations of three couples entangled in a web of extra-marital indiscretions. It asks us, 'What is love?' in a glaringly honest, deeply searching and ultimately sobering way. True Minds - An irresistible portrait of courage and inner conviction, True Minds is cogent and facetious. When two families on the brink of matrimonial union become stranded in a freak storm, will the couple's dawning incompatibility coax them to fight for integrity as the only reliably stable choice? Fury - After the news of their 19-year-old son's hate crime on a local mosque, Alice, an award-winning, cancer-curing scientist, and husband Patrick, a novelist,are forced into a whirlwind of self-examination and stripping back of decades-old secrets. In the harrowing unfolding of hypocrisies and brash pragmatism, Fury hones in on our true motivations and their lasting consequences.'
Contents
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Day One, A Hotel, Evening,
single work
drama
(p. 1-70)'A Hotel, Evening' is a smart, incisive comedy-of-manners about a group of well established couples and friends who, through a series of "La Ronde" style affairs, have spun an intricate web of feeling and indifference within their social circle. In a world where individual fulfilment is paramount, how do we all agree to play along?' (Red Stitch Actors Theatre website)
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True Minds,
single work
drama
humour
(p. 71-144)'Alive with her characteristic wit and needle-sharp social observation, True Minds is Joanna Murray-Smith's most glittering comedy to date.
Meeting your future mother-in-law is an anxious moment for any young woman. The last thing Daisy needs is her lefty parents turning up uninvited, or her alcoholic ex-boyfriend cracking open the cellar door! How on earth can she win the approval of Australia's answer to Margaret Thatcher?
True Minds is not only a hilarious battle of the sexes and political polarities, but also a rewarding exploration of the triumph of modern love.' -
Fury,
single work
drama
(p. 145-202)
'Alice and Patrick are conscientious and thoughtful, educated and open-minded, and that’s how they’ve raised their son, Joe. One evening, Joe’s teacher arrives to tell them that Joe is in trouble. Detained by police, he has committed an act of vandalism. Against the local mosque.
'Fury pushes into controversial territory: where personal sacrifice and responsibility are pitted against political correctness, and “good” people must confront the limitations of their empathy in the face of terror.
Are the children who are inheriting the world forced to place pragmatism ahead of conscience, or are idealism and hope the only way forward?'
Source: Red Stitch Theatre.
