A story of gay teen suicide and one boy’s struggle for acceptance, Wayne Tunks’ critically acclaimed play Silvertop Ash will make its Melbourne premiere at the Gasworks Theatre as part of the Midsumma Festival.
Hamish is a 17 year old from rural Australia, whose parents don’t seem to understand him. The school bully seems to be gunning for him and his best friend Aaron wants more from him than he may be able to give.
This poignant play about gay teen suicide in rural Australia, sold out in its initial run in Sydney in 2008 for Mardi Gras and was repeatedly praised by critics.
“No matter how much more accepting society is to gay people, it is still often very tough for teens to come to terms with their sexuality, especially in rural areas,” says Wayne Tunks.
“Some have estimated that 1 in 3 of teen suicides is sexuality based, this number gets higher in the country. Yet we don’t often talk about it. This is an important play about a topic that needs to be discussed more.”
Wayne Tunks is one of the country’s leading independent theatre dramatists, with successful shows including The Subtle Art of Flirting, We’ll Always Have Wagga, Hell Hath No Fury, and his very successful past Midsumma shows, 37 Ways To Say I’m Gay, Fag Boy & the Married Guy and Everything I Know I Learnt From Madonna. Out of all his previous shows, this is the one Wayne is most proud of!
Silvertop Ash features some of Melbourne’s experienced theatre performers, Perri Cummings, Geoff Wallis and Wayne Tunks, combined with some amazing new talents – who each have a bright future including James Coley, Saxon Evans and Haydan Hawkins.
“This is a very, very well written play, as taut and spare as any in the playwright’s considerable cannon.” – Australian Stage
Silvertop Ash
Gasworks Theatre, Corner Graham and Pickles Streets, Albert Park
Season: 21 – 31 January 2015
For more information and bookings: www.gasworks.org.au
All proceeds from program sales will support Minus 18 – a wonderful organisation for gay teens.