11 AUGUST - 3 SEPTEMBER 2022

HOW TO DEFEND YOURSELF

Written By Liliana Padilla
Directed By Claudia Barrie

“Your body is a weapon.”

Outhouse Theatre Co (Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Ulster American, The Flick) reunite with director Claudia Barrie (Dry Land, Bengal Tiger at Baghdad Zoo, The Cripple of Inishmaan) to present the Australian premiere of Liliana Padilla’s blazingly original new play.

Seven college students gather for a DIY self-defence workshop after a sorority sister is sexually assaulted. They learn to use their bodies as weapons. They learn to fend off attackers. They learn “not to be a victim.” Learning self-defence becomes a channel for their rage, anxiety, confusion, trauma and desire. Lots of desire.

Winner of the prestigious Yale Drama Prize and a finalist for the 2019 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Liliana Padilla’s blazing new play explores what it means to live in a culture saturated with violence and what it means to heal. With sharp humour and brutal honesty, the play examines what we want, how to ask for it, and the violator and violated inside us all.

After their acclaimed production of Dry Land, Outhouse and Barrie, are thrilled to team up again with a cast of some of Sydney’s most exciting emerging talent.

Photo credit: Marnya Rothe

CREATIVE TEAM

Presented By Outhouse Theatre Co & Red Line Productions
Written By
Liliana Padilla
Director
Claudia Barrie
Producer
Jeremy Waters
Assistant Director
Sophia Bryant
Stage Manager
Mollie Webb
Set Designer
Soham Apte
Lighting Designer
Saint Clair
Costume Designer
Emily Brayshaw
Intimacy Coordinator
Shondelle Pratt
Fight Choreographer
Scott Witt
Dialect Coach
Linda Nicolls-Gidley

Cast
Georgia Anderson, Madeline Marie Dona, Brittany Santariga, Jessica Spies, Jessica Paterson, Michael Cameron and Saro Lepejian

Swing/ Understudy Cast Isabelle Nader, Sarah Nader, Kian Pitman, Chelsea Yarad, Bayley Prendegast, Ziggy Resnick, Fraser Crane

PARTNER

DATES + TICKETING

Previews 11 - 12 August 2022

Season 13 August - 3 September 2022
Tuesday - Saturday 7.30PM
Sunday 5PM
Saturday matinees 2PM
Sunday 28th August 2PM

PLEASE NOTE Wednesday 17 Aug (Evening) , Saturday 20 Aug (Matinee) and Saturday 27 Aug (Matinee), Sunday 28th 2PM (Matinee) will be performed by the Swing/Understudy cast

Approximate run time 95 minutes

CONTENT NOTE

coarse language, sexual references and themes of sexual violence

Select Reviews

  • “Dark comedy pulls no punches as it explores sex and desire…Director Claudia Barrie’s production pulses with robust physicality, and she draws strong performances from her youthful cast.”

    SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

  • “It’s an opportune time for Sydney to see Liliana Padilla’s Yale Drama Prize-winning play about issues of desire, consent, power, toxic masculinity, sexual assault – and whether training in self-defence can ensure anyone’s safety… it is a fine, brave production – one that should be picked up exactly as it is and taken to a wider audience.”

    STAGE WHISPERS

  • “Terrifically acted, staged, and told free of manufactured emotional revenge & comic transformations – this is about people getting on with their lives, alert & alarmed but not hiding away.”

    CHUCK MOORE REVIEWS