THEATRE THAT WILL GIVE YOUR V*GINA TEETH
Silo Theatre presents
The Milford Asset Management Season of
The Writer
By Ella Hickson
Directed by Sophie Roberts
Presented in collaboration with Q Theatre
Dangerous, ferocious, provocative, unashamedly feminist - Silo Theatre marks a quarter century of trailblazing theatre with The Writer, Ella Hickson’s savage play that threatens to burn the theatre world to the ground.
A young writer encounters an older director on an empty stage. She’s furious about his latest play: it’s lazy, sexist, profane. He likes her rage. He flirts with her, condescends her, even offers her a job. But she wants more than he could ever offer. Forget his small stage and his even smaller imagination. She wants awe. She wants blood. She wants to change the shape of the world.
After a five year hiatus, Sophie Henderson returns to the stage to tackle the titular role of The Writer. Recently known for her work in film screenwriting (Baby Done, Fantail), this is a script that she wishes she’d written: “I cannot wait to stand on stage and say these words. I would love nothing more than to have the arguments in this play with certain directors and producers in real life. At times, The Writer feels so close to home that there’s not going to be any acting,” – says Henderson.
Sophie’s career was fostered by Silo and she has appeared in six of their productions, most recently in Alice Birch’s feminist manifesto, Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. She is joined by Toi Whakaari graduate Ashleigh Williams in her Silo debut, Narcos’ Matt Whelan, and theatre stalwart Stephen Lovatt.
Ella Hickson’s masterpiece takes ferocious aim at sexual politics in the theatre. Walls collapse and worlds splinter unpredictably, exposing the structures that shape what we see. Beautifully yearning and uncompromisingly savage, this is theatre with a new set of teeth.
In the wake of vitriolic public attacks on Amber Heard, and the overruling of Roe vs Wade in the USA - just the most recent, high-profile examples of a sustained, systematic attack on women - The Writer shuts down allegations that “#metoo is over”; it promises to bring a reckoning to the supposedly woke world of the arts in Aotearoa.
This production heralds the return of Silo’s award winning Artistic Director Sophie Roberts, with her first live work since 2019’s acclaimed production of The Wolves. “If we want the stories we tell to be impactful and transformative, theatre itself has to fundamentally change, and be willing to expose the patriarchal history our artform is built upon. The Writer is trying to blow the whole thing up, and I find that incredibly exciting, terrifying and motivating,” says Roberts.
Following its incendiary London premiere in 2018, this play has polarised audiences around the world. Now it’s time for Tāmaki Makaurau to weigh in this September - get into the theatre before all that’s left is ash.
“Does it scare you that the future might speak a language that you can’t understand?”
- The Writer
www.silotheatre.co.nz
Silo Theatre presents
The Milford Asset Management Season of
The Writer
By Ella Hickson
Directed by Sophie Roberts
Presented in collaboration with Q Theatre
1 - 18 September
Rangatira, Q Theatre
305 Queen Street
Auckland 1010
Tickets $35 - $65*
On-sale Friday 22 July, 10 AM via qtheatre.co.nz
*booking fees may apply