| Sinners | La Mama |
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 Abdou, a Middle Eastern farmer, is forced to flee his country taking his Aunt Fatma with him. They survive a sinking boat only to end up in a detention centre.
Julia, a pastor with a suburban Pentecostal Church, is surprised by her husband’s secret ambitions and desires. She clings to her faith while her world crumbles. Eventually she is forced to reach beyond the limits of what she knows.
When Julia and Abdou meet, an unlikely liaison is born and a love story of epic proportions begins. Their relationship attests to the similarities between people of vastly different backgrounds and beliefs but can it survive in a country where, increasingly, faith can be fanatical and our political leaders think multiculturalism is a dirty word?
Two actors play four characters – two Middle Eastern and two Australian – challenging our notions of what cultural and religious difference ‘looks’ like. These characters show how every person, no matter where they come from, struggles in the bid to live a moral life and fulfil their own needs for love and understanding.
Written by husband and wife Ramez Tabit and Johann McIntyre, SINNERS is a heartfelt exploration of the boundaries between different religions and beliefs, between race and gender and how these can be traversed by empathy and love.
Ramez Tabit began life as a devout young Muslim from the North of Lebanon before coming to Australia at the age of thirteen. He has since become a VCA trained Actor and Playwright. Johann McIntyre’s early years were dominated by the influence of the Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church of which she was a member. She went on to win a Wal Cherry Special Commendation Prize for her first play The Dam in the 1990s. Their combined religious/artistic experiences and subsequent relationship makes them ideally placed to explore intercultural and religious themes from the perspective of those who know.
Melanie Beddie is a graduate of Sydney University and VCA where she trained as an actor. She now works as an actor, director and dramaturg. She was a co-founder of the $5 Theatre Co. and is artistic director of the independent theatre company The BRANCH. In 2006 she directed Hotel (Melbourne Writers Festival), Dirty Women (Hobart) and is currently preparing Ghosts by Ibsen (Theatreworks). Other recent directorial work includes Traitors by Stephen Sewell (La Mama at the Carlton Courthouse), The BRANCH which won a Green Room Award (Best Director – Independent Theatre, 2005) and Second Childhood, adapted by Glenn Perry from Morris Glietzman (MTC/ Hothouse). She received the Inaugural Dramaturgy Fellowship from the Australia Council (2004).
Sinners
by Ramez Tabit and Johann McIntyre
Directed by Melanie Beddie
Designed by Emily Barrie
Performed by Osamah Sami and Gemma Cavoli
Venue: La Mama at the Carlton Courthouse, 349 Drummond Street, Carlton
Dates: March 16 – March 31, 2007
Times: Thursdays to Saturdays at 8.00pm, Wednesdays and Sundays at 6.30pm
Duration: 90 minutes approx.
Bookings: 9347 6142
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Saturday, 10 January 2009
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