Theatre: Ninety

Black Swan State Theatre Company
Written by Joanna Murray-Smith

Directed by Marcelle Schmitz

Featuring Paul English and Kirsty Hillhouse

The Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre

July 1-17, 2011

Joanna Murray-Smith

A man has agreed to spend 90 minutes with his former wife three days before he is to marry his much younger girlfriend. The former wife intends to use the time to persuade him to come back to her.

They met when he was her drama tutor, had an affair and married. Some years later he deserted her. He has become an internationally successful, award-winning actor and she an art restorer.

This is a very specific frame upon which to build a drama, full of possibilities but with very little margin for error. You have to be convinced by these two people, you have to come to want them to succeed or fail; and the working out of their situation needs to be clearly charted and reach a genuine and explicable conclusion.