Love Me Tender to make Sydney Premiere

Company B Belvoir, Griffin Theatre Company and ThinIce are combining to present the Sydney premiere of Tom Holloway’s new playLove Me Tender.

Coming to Sydney hot on the heels of a season at the 2010 Perth International Arts Festival, Love Me Tender presents a haunting vision of contemporary Australia drawn from experiences of catastrophic bushfires, pre-teen sexuality and domestic aspirations.

The production sees the continuation of a dynamic partnership between writer Tom Holloway and director Matt Lutton who were initially brought together by Griffin Theatre Company on the acclaimed 2008 production Don’t Say the Words. They are fast becoming close collaborators with projects planned for 2011 and beyond, including an opera opening in Munich called The Secret Life of Words.

Set on a dreamscape of an Australian back yard, the play is a hard hitting examination of a community that has forgotten how to deal with grief. Loosely inspired by Euripides’ Greek tragedy Iphegenia at Aulis, Love Me Tender sees five actors teasing out the complex relationship between a father and daughter on stage. By the end, their dream of family life has been engulfed in fire, and a tale of pure love has become a searing tragedy of human frailty and sacrifice.

With no specific roles allocated to speakers, or any stage directions included in the script, Tom Holloway’s Love Me Tender will be crafted for the stage by the visionary young director Matt Lutton.

“Love Me Tender is a beautiful and sensitively written play – Tom’s writing uses simple words to articulate extraordinary events,” Lutton said.

“It is a play about questioning the nature of love, how what we call love can create great joy and great pain simultaneously.”

The cast includes Luke Hewitt who comes to Company B Belvoir for the first time. He was recently announced the winner of the Perth Theatre Trust/Equity Guild Award for Best Actor in 2009 for Speed-the-Plow and in 2008 for Road Train. Belinda McClory also makes her Company B Belvoir debut, having previously been in 2,000 Feet Away (2007) for B Sharp/ Frogbattleship and The Modern International Dead (2008) and Concussion (2009)  for Griffin Theatre Company. Kris McQuade returns to the Company B mainstage, having previously appeared in Our Lady of Sigo (2004) and Cloudstreet (2001). Arky Michael was recently seen in Company B’s Baghdad Wedding (2009) and has previously appeared in The Small Poppies (1999) and The Tempest (1990). Amongst Colin Moody’s extensive theatre, film and television credits, he includes Macbeth (2003) and the Lieutenant of Irishmore (2003) for Company B Belvoir and Live Acts on Stage(1996) and Concussion (2009) for Griffin Theatre Company.

The play opens at the Belvoir Street Theatre on March 18. Bookings: (02) 9699 3444