Bangalow Theatre’s tiny, beautiful things

BANGALOW Theatre Company and the Drill Hall Theatre are presenting the heart-wrenching play Tiny Beautiful Things opening tonight in Mullumbimby and running until April 12.

Nia Vardalos adapted the play for the stage, based on Cheryl Strayed’s bestselling book of the same name.

The story centres on a struggling writer who takes over an unpaid, anonymous advice columnist job and, using empathy and personal experiences, helps people seeking guidance.

The stage production personifies the questions and answers that ‘Sugar’ was published online between 2010 and 2012.

Vardalos, who was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, wrote and starred in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

As fan of Strayed’s memoir Wild (the film starring Reese Witherspoon), she worked with director Thomas Kail (Hamilton) to realise the play.

Vardalos also originated the role of Sugar in The Public Theater’s production of Tiny Beautiful Things in New York in 2016.

The New York Times said it was ‘about the endangered art of listening to – and really hearing and responding to – other people’ and worked ‘beautifully as a sustained theatrical exercise in empathy’.

At one and a half hours without interval, the show requires attention and is described as a play about ‘reaching when you’re stuck, healing when you’re broken, and finding the courage to take on the questions that have no answers’.

Tiny Beautiful Things at the Drill Hall Theatre is directed by Anouska Gammon (Artistic Director of Bangalow Theatre Company), with lighting design by Richard Morrod.

“The first time I read this play, I laughed out loud and cried. It was 8:45 am—I wasn’t ready to feel so much,” said Gammon.

“I knew this writing couldn’t go unheard or unfelt. I thought, yes. Everybody needs this play, right now.”

Venue doors and bar are open 30 minutes prior to the start of the show.

For information and tickets, visit trybooking.com/events/landing/1362116