A medley on mortality

VARIETY is the spice of life, and members of Ballarat National Theatre have taken that phrase to heart with their current production.

The company’s A Date with Death show includes nine short stories of different genres and styles.

Creative director Megan J Riedl said there’s a unifying thread between the shows. “They’re thematically tied to mortality,” she said.

“We had a submission to our season of a one-act play called The Death of Ellen Moore, which the committee wanted to produce but by itself it wasn’t enough of an offer.

“Instead, we decided to pair it with some other shorter pieces so it’s a full evening of entertainment around one theme.

“It’s really varied. Some are black comedies, others are outright absurdist, and others are really touching and heartfelt. It’s the whole range and reflects our experiences of death.”

The stories featured in the production include the eponymous Date with Death by Steven Hayet, directed by Gin O’Brien, and an adaptation of Colette Freedman’s Sister Cities from BNT president Liana Emmerson.

Ruby Penhall will deliver an adaptation of Katrina Mathers’ Still Water while Shannon Nicholls, who made his directorial debut last year with BNT’s Caesar, will return to the director’s chair to bring Ballarat playwright Marty Monstar’s He Died Alone to life.

The show will also see Laura Hudson direct her first piece in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard, which will be excerpted between other works as a throughline.

Ann Chadwick is directing a third of the production’s pieces from an original work called Enlightenment, to adaptations of Peter Nethercote’s Heaven’s Above, and Just Friends by Rosemary Whyte.

As well as steering the production, Riedl is co-directing the original piece The Death of Ellen Moore that springboarded the show, with its writer Jon Amesbury.

“The whole point of it being shorts is that people can step into roles they might not have had before,” Riedl said. “We’ve got some that have acted with us that are trying their hand at directing so it’s a great way to provide that supportive environment without it being a massive undertaking of a big show.”

A Date with Death will run from today, Friday 5, to Sunday 14 July at the Sebastopol Uniting Church community space, located at 106 Albert Street.

Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for children and can be booked at bit.ly/3XpFTzI.