Winner of the 2019 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy, “Home, I’m Darling” is a clever social comedy tackling gender issues and the glorification of 1950s culture.
Home, I’m Darling, wittily written by Laura Wade and cleverly directed by award-winning director, Tania Nash, is at Noosa Arts Theatre from 12-22 September.
The play is an examination into the reverence of wifeliness. Observing the familiar theme, that 1950s' women focused on the wedding ring, and the men focused on the skirt, and the embedded propaganda that women were the happy homemaker and men the head of the household and the sole provider, the play flips this idea on its head.
Protagonist Judy has opted into this kind of regressive arrangement, coaxing her reluctant husband into trying to live out the 1950s as an “experiment” because she favours what she views as the simplicity and kindness of that era.
Obviously, this is an extreme fantasy, bordering on delusion. The 1950s ideal of cupcakes and cocktails, vintage clothes and village fetes, is all good, squeaky-clean fun at one level. But this icing sugar-drenched life is not as sweet as we might imagine.
Judy, played by Deb Ellison, clings to her fantasy, long past all reason, allowing it to gradually become her prison and a denial of reality. Johnny, played by Sean McDermott, plays the patient husband who realises that having more time but less money is wearing thin and that outside of their four walls, modern life beckons.
The subject of 1950s' sitcoms and their incongruity with harsher realities has gotten the cinematic treatment before, often in much more dramatic ways, from the when-eras-collide fantasy comedy Pleasantville to last year’s dystopian thriller Don’t Worry Darling, but this theatrical presentation packs a punch.
DATES Preview: September 12 at 7:30pm – all tickets $27 Evenings: September 13, 19, 20 at 7:30pm Matinees: September 14, 15, 21, 22 at 2:00pm Charity Night for Tewantin Noosa Lions Club: September 18 at 7:30pm – all tickets $52
TICKETS: Adults $37 | Concessions $32 | Member/Group $27 | U18 $27ns $37 | Member/Group $35 | U18 $25.
Noosa Arts Theatre is at 163 Weyba Road, Noosaville. Box office open Tues- Fri, 10am- 2pm.
Noosa Arts Theatre - Home Im Darling - Deb Ellison Sean McDermott and Sepi Burgiani
Contact Noosa Arts Theatre
07 5449 9343
https://www.noosaartstheatre.org.au/
