Playful and poignant stories told with wit
and gen-X wisdom.

When I started writing my first monologue, Pearls, I was intending to write a conventional memoir for publication. The more I wrote, the more I realised that it was really a piece to be performed.

This presented me with a conundrum, because I had dabbled in stand-up in my mid-30s and discovered that I have terrible stage fright (like throw up in the toilets beforehand type of fright). I had never written for theatre before. And I had no acting experience beyond my role as Grandpa Joe in Port Pirie Youth Theatre's 1984 production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

But the story of Pearls meant so much to me that I pushed on, thinking I would just perform it for family and friends and see how it went from there.

It's been worth every terrifying second. Learning how to perform has given me a whole new way to see my writing, and as cliched as it sounds, I love the immediacy of the connection with an audience that can only come from live performance.

I wrote and performed Pearls at the 2018 Adelaide Fringe. In that show, I told the story of my mother's strange pearls of wisdom. Since then, it has grown into a series of six shows all exploring identity, family memory and grief across different life events.

‍Each show is a stand-alone piece, but they also form a cohesive whole, like chapters of a book. I love finding the connections between the shows in themes, characters and call-backs.

I have debuted the shows at the Adelaide Fringe, and I now regularly tour to regional South Australia and interstate. I especially love sharing the stories in regional towns and areas.

If you're interested in talking about opportunities to share these shows with your community please get in touch. I'd love to talk with you.