After a hiatus in 2021, The Blue Room’s thoughtfully curated Summer Nights program of theatre, movement and storytelling is returning for 2022. Focusing on new works, theatrical experiments, and social commentary, Summer Nights showcases a diverse pool of local talent, both emerging and established, from the independent theatre scene.

In part 3 of our guide to summer festival viewing, we bring you a taste of some of the works on offer… plus we’ll be reviewing a number of the other Summer Nights shows, so stay tuned!

Plus check out our Fringe World hot tips, part I and part II.

She’s Terribly Greedy
27 January – 3 February

Following up on Everything Flickers from last year’s TILT series, Eliza Smith and an ensemble of WAAPA graduates return with a performance about being overwhelmed by choice.

Socialised into a world where women must be one perfect thing, and then thrust rudely into contemporary girlboss culture where doing less than everything is an affront to feminism, Ellenore confronts a reality facing much of Gen Z; she wants it all, and she can’t decide which path to take. Join her in this interrogation of options, contradictions, and possibilities.

Read Seesaw Mag’s Q&A with Eliza Smith about She’s Terribly Greedy.

stillbirth
29 January – 5 February

In stillbirth, playwright Dr Tinashe Jakwa offers a biting examination of the lingering impacts of colonialism, through the story of a white man trapped in the house of a Black family.

Amid inexplicable sounds and scents, the unintentional hosts wonder if they are cohabiting with a ghost. A scholar and an artist, Jakwa says she wants to “talk about sensitive issues in critical, fun and moving ways.”

If you’re interested in how the lessons of the past can contribute to a better future, then this is the show for you.

Wildcard
29 January – 5 February

Wildcards are unpredictable elements. Outside chances thrown in at the last minute, wildcards have the power to redirect events or totally change an outcome.

In a show that plays with both the outsider status and disruptive power its title entails, Wildcard is an experimental work that is never the same twice.

Presented by a group of wildcard artists, and directed by Henry Boles of The Last Great Hunt Gatherer’s Collective, expect a frenzied improv-style romp.

Utopia
8-12 February

Into the space between crisis and hope comes Utopia, a collection of cross-cultural and transnational stories from writer-director Amir Musavi.

Born in Afghanistan, Musavi became a refugee living in Iran, where he made festival theatre before arriving in Australia in 2019. Dreams, sacrifice, terror and transition are the undercurrent of Utopia’s raw interrogations of migration and home.

Complex, thrilling and at times confronting, says Musavi, the work asks audiences to consider the uncertain paradise Australia offers our asylum seeker population.

Leo/Taurus/Taurus
8-12 February

How do you take your personality typology? Do you prefer classic quizzes like Myers-Briggs? Or would you rather have a side of mysticism with your self-awareness, and opt for the signs of the zodiac?

Leo/Taurus/Taurus explores the tools people use to better understand themselves and others. In a world that’s in constant flux, self-identity remains a stable site of analysis and introspection.

Directed by Michelle Endersbee, with a cast of stellar local performers, Leo/Taurus/Taurus promises story-telling, movement, song and poetry.

For the full Summer Nights program head to the Summer Nights website.

And keep an eye our for Seesaw Mag’s reviews of Summer Nights shows 107, Conversations With a Fish, Salome, The Complete Show of Waterskiing, The Ugly, Mother of Compost and Takatāpui.

Pictured top is performer Donita Cruz from ‘She’s Terribly Greedy.’ Photo: Nicolee Fox

Want more? Check out our hot tips for Fringe World, part I and part II.