Thomas De Angelis chats with Patricia Cornelius. Produced by Sally Alrich-Smythe.

Hannie Rayson

Aanisa Vylet is a fresh and exciting voice on Sydney stages. She's also one of the few Prop Playwrights we've interviewed who writes and performs her own work. Aanisa's play, "The Girl/The Woman" recently enjoyed a successful season at the National Theatre of Parramatta. The play is in two parts: The Girl part tells the story of a young Muslim woman of Lebanese heritage, who embarks on a journey into adulthood in Sydney, and later, London. The Woman part of the play sees the story return to Sydney, where the Woman's mother is dealing not only with the difficulty of understanding her daughter's decisions, but also the trauma of being diagnosed with cancer. Aanisa weaves ideas and stories from her own life into her work, and in "The Girl/The Woman", her performance was captivating, precise and thoughtful.

Joanna Murray-Smith is a probably Australia's most productive playwright. Her work has been performed on The West End, on Broadway, and at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles and all over Australia. She's been a mainstay of Australian stages, particularly in her native Melbourne, where you can pretty much guarantee that at any given time, she probably has a new play on, or in development, or being done as a revival. Joanna Murray-Smith is prolific. Thomas De Angelis first encountered her work when he saw "Honour" in the Drama Theatre at the Opera House in 2010. It was part of the Sydney Theatre Company's mainstage season, and featured Paula Arundal, Yael Stone, Wendy Hughes and William Zappa, a set by Michael Scott Mitchell and was directed by Lee Lewis. It is an affective, raw, emotional piece that dissects the breakdown of a marriage over time. Joanna Murray-Smith has written a lot of plays. One of the first she wrote was about "Angry Penguins", the literary magazine notable for the infamous Ern Malley hoax played on its editors Max Harris and John Reed. Soon after, Joanna wrote "Atlanta", which was about a group of young people coming to terms with the apparent suicide of one of their friends. "Love Child", "Ridge's Lovers" and "Flame" all had Australian debuts at new writing havens like The Griffin Theatre in Sydney and LaMama Theatre in Melbourne, and in 1995, Joanna went to New York to study in the writing program at Columbia University. It was there that she met and befriended the late Edward Albee. Besides their resemblance in prodigious output, Joanna and Albee seem equally preoccupied with the close-up examination of humans and human relations, characters who are relatable, charming and understandable - but are at the same time ultimately unknowable and ambiguous in their actions and desires. Like Edward Albee's plays, Joanna's plays depict the strange, indefinite nature of people, the sides of us that we know, but don't fully understand. This idea is at the forefront of many of Joanna's plays like "Rapture", which is about a group of educated yet cynical people who are shocked when two of their friends claim to have found God. Also, her play "Fury", which concerns a successful married couple whose nineteen year old son commits a crime of hateful vandalism on a local mosque. The son's behaviour shocks his parents, but not nearly as much as his reasons for doing it, which the parents both struggle to dismiss as a mere misdemeanour. The play captured the difficulties of parenthood, and skewered its characters' use of lazy ideologies. "The Gift" is a play about a wealthy couple who meet a not-so-wealthy couple at an expensive resort. They hit it off and find each other fast becoming friends. When the not-so-wealthy man, Martin, saves the wealthier man, Ed, from his death, Ed makes Martin an offer of whatever his lifesaver's heart desires. It's an extremely funny and incisive play about class and the choices we make in what we do for work and satisfaction. It won the NSW Premier's Literary Award in 2012. "Switzerland" is unique amongst Joanna's body of work, in that its main character is real-life writer Patricia Highsmith. The play is set during her self-imposed exile in the Swiss Alps. Highsmith is visited by a young man from her New York publisher, who is sent to convince her to write the final instalment of her best-selling Mr Ripley series. It's quite a dark play, that deftly uses the techniques of noir and thriller to spin a tight two hander, which seems to hurtle unmistakably towards a fatal climax. Joanna Murray-Smith has written the librettos for musicals, including "Bombshells", "Songs For Nobodies" and "Pennsylvania Avenue", as well as the operas "Love In The Age Of Therapy" and...

Stephen Sewell is currently head of Writing For Performance at NIDA. It was there that Thomas De Angelis first met him in 2015. If you were to come to know Stephen Sewell solely through reading his plays, then you would probably think that he's a man of unflinchingly certain principles, preoccupied with power and corruption, and predisposed to violent revolution. And look - he is that - but he's also extremely funny, warm and kind. As Lewis Treston has said in another podcast from this series, Stephen is, in person, a jolly man, although slightly more responsive to human misery than the average person. His plays demonstrate a flair for passionate and intense dialogue, with characters that outwardly question themselves, their surroundings, motives, societies, positions and privileges. Many of his plays are thrillers, and when one reads them, they seem to hurtle forward towards their climaxes in a way that induces a sort of emotional whiplash and leave you dazed at the dense and troubled world you've just experienced. He's one of this country's most awarded playwrights as well, and has written an astonishing amount of plays, a few of which will be summarised anon: His first play, "The Father We Loved on a Beach by the Sea", which was first performed at Brisbane's La Boite Theatre Company in 1978, is a dystopian examination of working-class reactionary conservatism. In the play, a son struggles to understand how his father could support the conservative political force that was ultimately oppressing him. Then came "Traitors", which was first performed by the Australian Performing Group at the Pram Factory in Melbourne in 1979. "Traitors" was a play rooted firmly in history, opening in the wake of the 1917 Russian Revolution and travelling to the darkest periods of World War II. His subsequent three plays cemented Stephen's reputation as a writer of epic thrillers that were as detailed in character as they were complex in their narrative. 1982's "Welcome The Bright World", was a family drama and political thriller rolled into one, with terrorists and secret police and neo-fascism all combined to make what is an amazing accomplishment of playwriting. Following that, in 1983, "The Blind Giant is Dancing" was an eviscerating portrayal of politics and power in Australia at that time. It won the Play Award in the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards. Then, "Dreams in an Empty City" came in 1986, forming the culmination of Stephen's series of political thrillers. Its structure is complex, with a dense story and a tone that verges on the edge of frenzied hysteria. These three plays in particular, "Welcome The Bright World", "The Blind Giant Is Dancing" and "Dreams in an Empty City" all manage to weave several distinct plotlines into a cogent whole in a way that is absolutely astonishing. In 1989 Stephen again won the Play Award in the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards for "Hate", which he wrote for the 1988 Bicentennial celebrations. "Hate" was a drama about a wealthy political family, who gather the family home, which is built on the site of an historical massacre of Aboriginal people. More recently, Stephen won the Play Award in the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards and the Louis Esson Prize in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards for "Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America".That play was another political thriller written in response to the American reaction to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Stephen has been, in a word, prolific. His plays are sometimes called "difficult", but it's probably more accurate to say that they demand a great deal from his audience - more than the average play would. He, somewhat controversially, stood up at ...

Sue Smith is a writer for television, films and most recently, theatre. Thomas De Angelis met her at the ATYP National Studio, which is also where he met fellow Prop Playwright Podcasters Mary Anne Butler and Lewis Treston. Sue was a great mentor to the assembled playwrights during that delightful week down south, and she spoke of her writing process as one that was grounded in field research. Sue likes to see the places and meet the people and know the stories that she writes about intimately. This being a playwright's podcast, we'll be focussing on Sue's work for the stage. However, her writing career, which spans almost forty years, involves a great deal of writing for screen. Sue has written television scripts for "The Young Doctors" throughout the 1980s, "Sons and Daughters" in 1982 and "Brides Of Christ" in 1992. In 2004, she wrote the screenplay for the movie Peaches, which starred Jaqueline Mackenzie and Hugo Weaving. In 2007, Sue achieved a level of notoriety for writing the ABC miniseries Bastard Boys, which was a dramatized retelling of the 1998 Waterfront Dispute and featured Colin Friels, Jack Thompson and Rhys Muldoon. The then Prime Minister, John Howard reviewed the film as "one of the most lopsided pieces of political propaganda I've seen on the national broadcaster in years." In 2012, Sue wrote the telemovie "Mabo" for the ABC, which was a biopic about the life of Eddie Koiki Mabo and his fight to overturn terra nullius and claim native title over his island home, Mer. Sue's plays are brilliant and she has been awarded the Patrick White Playwright's Fellowship at Sydney Theatre Company. Her professional debut in 2009 was a play called "Strange Attractor". It was about a group of work colleagues at a mining facility in the northern part of Western Australia. In the play, a man has been killed onsite during a cyclone and management has arrived in the form of Darren Gilshenan, and they want to cover their asses. Like Bastard Boys, the play showed the human cost of decisions made by bosses hundreds of kilometres away from the work of their employees, which in this case is particularly dangerous. In 2014, Sue's play "Kryptonite" was produced at Sydney Theatre Company and co-produced by State Theatre Company of South Australia. It was a story that moved so deftly through time and into so may different places. It had a filmic quality, and at its core concerned the relationship between an idealistic Australian man and an conflicted Chinese woman. They meet at Sydney University and he grows up to be a Greens Senator and she goes back to China and becomes an influential businesswoman. The play dealt with the geopolitical relationship between Australia and China in an extremely entertaining and engaging way, through the prism of two central characters and their love for each other, and it demonstrated Sue's unique ability to examine grand political concepts via intimate, detailed and personal relationships. In 2016, Sue's play, "Machu Picchu", was produced at Sydney Theatre Company and State Theatre Company of South Australia. Sue has said that "Macchu Pichu" came out of her experience being diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, and while the play is definitely not about that experience specifically, it does deal with the notion of courage in the face of death, what it's like to recover from illness and to do so within an industrialised hospital system. I also think that the play is about how love between two people, like the bones in ones body, can be broken - and repaired. Just like in "Mabo", "Kryptonite", "Bastard Boys" and "Peaches", in "Macchu Picchu", Sue was able to create a relationship between two characters that felt real, unique and important. Sue Smith is clever, funny, kind and we're bloody lucky to have on the...

Lewis Treston is one of the most interesting playwrights in Australia. Thomas De Angelis first met him in 2015, in the foyer at NIDA after watching his play "Raegan Kelly". Set in his Native Queensland, Julia Christensen starred in the titular role, and delivered a stunning performance that captured the very essence of pathos and humour that imbues all of Lewis' writing. It was somehow unsettling, and at the same time thrilling - to look on as Raegan, a former school captain, tried desperately and anarchically to spice up her dull suburban life with something - anything - before she finally snapped and burnt the whole bloody thing to the ground. It was a script that crackled with energy, and possessed equal amounts of heart and wit - and it was a fantastic example of Lewis' knack for zeroing in on the feelings that we all share but never talk about. In 2016, Lewis was the resident playwright at the Australian Theatre for Young People. During his time there, he wrote "Hot Tub", which was (at least in part) inspired by Lewis' particular obsession with Las Vegas, Nevada. "Hot Tub" is a play about a blended family slowly losing their grip on their home, their finances and their sense of morality. Set on the Gold Coast, the play deftly captures the superficial and materialistic world of Surfers Paradise, schoolies, drugs, money, casinos and alcohol. The central character was, like Raegan Kelly, a somewhat flawed, but otherwise well-intentioned young woman who has decided to ask her father for fifteen thousand dollars in order to get gastric banding, and maybe a boob job, and maybe her eyes done... from a plastic surgeon in Brazil. It's a wild, and at times dazzlingly chaotic play, that manages to critically engage with some singularly Australian ideas without being preachy or judgmental. In August 2016, Lewis and Thomas attended the Australian Theatre For Young People's National Studio at Bundanon, where they met fellow Prop's Playwright Podcast stars Mary Anne Butler and Sue Smith (and the incomparable Jenni Medway). It was an amazing week, in which young playwrights from across Australia gathered to lounge and write on the sun-drenched banks of the Shoalhaven River, on a property devoted to artistic endeavour, established by Arthur Boyd and his wife Yvonne. At one point during that incredible week, Lewis and Thomas managed to corral the group of twenty or so playwrights to break out into a rather too loud rendition of Moon River. It was at that moment that Lewis confessed to Thomas that he was deeply fascinated by the idea of spontaneous mass hysteria. The scene Lewis wrote while at the National Studio was called "The Arcade" and it was a fine example of Lewis' ability to deal with that strange uneasiness that comes with being young and uncertain about the future. His characters, Stuart and Karolina, have escaped a school formal to play a shooting game at an aging arcade at the Starlight Plaza. The scene it evoked a vivid sense of place, that was firmly Australian, suburban and decaying. Lewis' latest work, "Meat Eaters" was shown through Sydney Theatre Company's rough draft program, which is a week long workshop process culminating in a staged reading of the work. The play is a comedy about cruelty set in an online pet accessories store. It's a wild ride, with exciting elements like an internationally renowned cat, a man who preferred to be a puppy and a religious zealot who got what she wanted by visualising her desires. He is a funny, warm and thoughtful human being.

Mary Anne Butler is a playwright based in Darwin, in the Northern Territory. She has been a dramatist her whole life, but rose to prominence with her play, Highway of Lost Hearts, which told the story of a woman who had lost her heart, and her ability to feel, after the death of a close friend in a boating accident. In the play, the woman begins a journey across the country with her trusted companion, her dog. Along the way, through the people she meets and the situations she encounters, she re-finds her heart, piece by piece until she reaches the coast and is able to let go of the friend she has lost and to forgive herself. It's powerful piece of work, about grief and loss and forgiveness. In 2016, Mary Anne had an absolute cracker of a year. For her play Broken, she was the winner of the Victorian Premier's Prize for Drama, which is one of the most significant recognitions a playwright can receive in this country. The play was also awarded the Northern Territory Literary Award for Best Script. She then went on to win the Victorian Prize for Literature - the FIRST playwright ever to do so. Her most recent play, Cusp, which was given a development reading at the 2018 National Play Festival was written in response to the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, and the scandalous treatment of the inmates there.Cusp focuses on the lives of three young people in the Territory, the expectations that society places on them, and the fragility of their existence. Her play The Sound Of Waiting, will open in April 2018 at the Eternity Playhouse. Her award winning play Broken was staged there in 2016, and, like Broken, TheSound Of Waiting has been nominated for another prestigious playwriting award, in this case the NSW Premier's Literary Award for Playwrighting - The Nick Enright Prize. The Sound Of Waiting brings Mary Anne's dramatic scrutiny to bear on the issue of Asylum Seekers and Refugees, the so-called "boat people" who have been used as political footballs for the last two decades of Australia's Federal Politics. The play tells the story of a man and his daughter's escape from their country to Australia by boat, and uses the breathtakingly clever device of the Angel Of Death to indict us all in the tragedy of all those many lives lost at sea. It is gripping and unflinching in its portrayal of the desperation of the world's most vulnerable people, and further proves Mary Anne Butler's brilliance as a playwright of great compassion and intelligence. Mary Anne is a strong advocate for regional writers and writing and in particular for the Northern Territory, both in its Top End and Alice Springs writing communities. She has been persuasive in her arguments about the need for the East Coast metropolitan centres to be aware and receptive to the bold stories being told from places like the Territory. She is a teacher, a mentor, and a cultural leader in Australia.