Powerful show hits Sydney

Edinburgh Fringe Festival favourite A Solitary Choice will be appearing at the Seymour Centre as part of the Best of Independent Theatre (BITE) program.

Edinburgh Fringe Festival favourite A Solitary Choice will be appearing at the Seymour Centre as part of the Best of Independent Theatre (BITE) program.

The provocative one-woman production, featuring a critically-acclaimed performance from Tamara Lee, will hit the stage from 10-27 November.

Fans of compelling theatre and emotionally poignant storytelling will love Sheila Duncan’s story about Ruth – an everyday suburban wife, career woman and mother. Ruth considers her life as dull and as predetermined as a sheep on a farm. In a moment of rare passion she finds herself in an affair with a hot-blooded South American, and her once safe life changes forever.

Duncan’s vivid piece comes alive with the performance of Tamara Lee and is peppered with a poetic and, sometimes, comical narrative.

Ruth takes the audience on a funny and very personal journey as she unravels the layers of who she is and who she wants to be. She is a woman who has everything that contemporary society claims a modern woman should desire and yet is unfulfilled. This turns into a journey of discovery, dealing with the extremes of human life. As Ruth discovers; a woman’s greatest struggle is often also her greatest secret. A Solitary Choice makes for a truly heart-wrenching and traumatic journey within the quiet exterior of a modern woman.

Winner of the 2008, Horatio Awards – ‘best actor’, ‘best writer’ and ‘best director’ – the show is one of only two plays taking part in the Seymour Centre’s 2010 BITE program. BITE showcases the best of independent theatre, and is supported by Arts NSW and the University of Sydney’s Centre for Continuing Education.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival described A Solitary Choice as a compelling drama with challenging ideals that provides an open and honest insight into female empowerment.

“The play contains shattering moments and yet there’s also a quality that tells the tale not with moralising, but with moral force – a force which guides us, leads us by its skillfully narrating hand through what is still difficult even taboo territory for many people, even cultures. Top class writing, a highly recommended play,” says Paul Levy of the Fringe Review.

For lovers of impassioned storytelling, A Solitary Choice is a gripping piece of onstage theatre that will have you coming back for more.

The University of Sydney’s Centre for Continuing Education will be running a one-day event as part of their support of BITE. Following the November 23 performance of A Solitary Choice, Dr Leslie Cannold will lead a discussion with a panel of prominent women and the audience to debate the ethics of difficult decisions.

Bookings: (02) 9351 7940.