wild cherries

La Mama Courthouse, August 2019
 

Broken stories of forgotten people by Daniel Keene.

Trapped by circumstance and poverty, exploited and disposable, a group of forced labourers risk everything to break the bonds that imprison them. Each has a different story to tell, but all their stories are broken. Trapped in a cycle of unrelenting labour, cut off from their past and uncertain of their future, eight individuals must discover their collective strength. Perhaps together they can create a new beginning.

Catch on fire and people will come for miles to see you burn.
– John Wesley.
 

playwright - Daniel Keene
director - Beng Oh
with - Lucy Ansell, Molly Broadstock, Milijana Čančar, Dennis Coard, Carmelina Di Guglielmo, Kim Ho, Troy Larkin and Enzo Nazario
set and costume designer - Emily Collett
lighting designer - Shane Grant
composer and sound designer - Ben Keene
stage manager - Teri Steer
production photos - Sarah Walker

‘A moving piece of Australian theatre that examines the brutality of forced labour… The stage design and lighting convey the sparseness of a scene of entrapment, and capture the atmosphere of a brutalising temporary ‘home’ that could be anywhere.’
Arjun Rajkhowa, Arts Hub

‘Beng Oh directs a show ripe with dramatic possibility, with riveting performances that pluck absurd humour, poignancy, rage and sorrow from places even those who've read the text might not expect. Its broken monologues often inspire the strongest acting.’
Cameron Woodhead, The Age

‘Emily Collett’s set design catches your eye as you enter the theatre; two ladders, one platform block, tree netting dangling from the ceilings. Oh makes good use of the different physical levels, creating interesting physicality within the space, which compliments the script. There’s a strong sense of flow from each scene to the next even though some are broken and fragmented, reflecting the topics within the play.’
Lucinda Naughton, Theatre Travels

‘Wild Cherries is a mesmerising play that treats its subject matter — the disorientated lives of those caught in the modern slave trade – unflinchingly. It is compelling, at times frustrating, and altogether unlike anything else that’s been produced for Australian theatres in some time.’
Cameron Colwell, The Music

‘The show has a wonderfully eerie set that evokes images of the hard labour to which these individuals are condemned. There is a lightness in the design that gives a sense of great open space.’
Patricia Di Risio, Stage Whispers