Atlantis Program / 2023

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25 OCT – 3 NOV

Malthouse acknowledges the unceded lands of the Kulin Nation. We acknowledge their sovereignty and their Songlines. We pay respect to their Elders and their Children. We embrace and celebrate the oldest culture in the world.

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WRITER’S NOTE LOST CITIES, LOST KNOWLEDGE, LOST HOMES When my mother identifies herself culturally she says, ‘I am a daughter of Samoa.’ My mother was born in Samoa, grew up in Aotearoa and immigrated to Australia where she met my old man and had my siblings and I. I’m very proud to be her daughter but I haven’t always been proud to be Samoan. Growing up afakasi in white Australia is complicated.

Watching the Pacific Islands get hit by the worst of climate change from the distance and comfort of white Australia is more complicated. It’s a strange type of grief. Watching a home I don’t know properly, sink.

Atlantis is for young people, it’s an invitation to look at the climate crisis through a nonWestern lens. To consider what they know about this humanitarian issue and how they’ve come to know it.

It’s also an invitation to IBPOC to answer the call to step into their roles as intergenerational guardians of culture.

Finally, it’s a love letter to the Pacific and Indigenous peoples across the globe.

Atlantis is my first play as a writer. It was carefully and lovingly knitted together by myself and Mark Pritchard over a year and a half. Given into the expert hands of Isabella Vadiveloo, who has held the work and the outpouring of personal experience that comes with it, with generosity, vision and so much heart and artistry. As has the whole creative team. I hope you enjoy the show, I hope it reminds you to be brave, and I hope I honour those I am from.

Climate justice is Indigenous liberation.

CHANELLA MACRI / WRITER ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To Malthouse, for the remarkable privilege of developing and presenting this work. Thank you for housing this story and making it possible.

To my mentor, dearest mate and dramaturg, Mark Pritchard, for championing the work from the start and guiding me throughout the process with supreme care, humility and expertise.

Thank you for your patience, hard work and always having my back.

To John Marc Desengano, Slone Sudiro, Sina Brown, Shabana Azeez, Michael Logo, and Karl Richmond, Kevin Hofbauer and Kira Samu for their artistic expertise and generosity of personal experience in the development of this work.

To the Council of Deens, for being my ground zero of support, love, championing and dramaturgy.

Alofa tele atu Tinā, I try and walk through the world as you do.

Campaign Photography / Tamarah Scott. Printed on 100% recycled paper. © Malthouse Theatre, the artists, designers, photographers, collaborators and contributors. All rights reserved, 2023.

DIRECTOR’S NOTE I can honestly say I have never laughed so hard in a rehearsal room as I have making Atlantis. The actors and I would often come in the next morning, complaining of aching abdominal muscles from the antics of the previous day. This was not the experience I anticipated for a show about facing the reality of climate change, and the toll it takes on vulnerable communities. What Chanella has done in such a masterful way, is write deep care and courage into the facing of enormous, complex subject matter. She has invited us to be ourselves, and to hold each other, in equal measure—to find answers through connection and community.

The actors and I took this incredible offer and found each other, every day, just as we were. We bonded over having first and second generation migrant experiences, too much or not enough anxiety about climate change, the actors generously shared experiences and perspectives specific to growing up in Pasifika communities and more than anything else, we embraced and celebrated connection by making each other laugh. I cannot thank them all enough for trusting me with this story, and all the stories and experiences they brought into the room, that are now woven in throughout the play.

It’s hard for me to think about climate change without becoming overly nihilistic—what place does a theatre director really have in solving a problem this big, and caused by such faceless, aggressive greed so out of my control? But when I turn towards my communities—my families, my rehearsal rooms, my friends—when they make me laugh, and I make them laugh, those greedy, faceless climate changing powermongers have got nothing on us. We’re coming, ready or not.

ISABELLA VADIVELOO / DIRECTOR

CAST & CREATIVE

CHANELLA MACRI SHE/HER WRITER & CAST

ISABELLA VADIVELOO SHE/HER DIRECTOR, AUDIO VISUAL DESIGN

MARK PRITCHARD HE/HIM DRAMATURG

JOHN MARC DESENGANO HE/HIM CAST

KIRA SAMU SHE/HER CAST

KARINE LARCHÉ SHE/HER SET & COSTUME DESIGNER, AUDIO VISUAL DESIGN

KIT CUNNEEN SHE/HER LIGHTING DESIGNER

REX PELMAN HE/HIM COMPOSER & SOUND DESIGNER

JETHRO WOODWARD HE/HIM COMPOSITION & SOUND DESIGN MENTOR

HARRY DOWLING HE/HIM STAGE MANAGER

MALTHOUSE STAFF & BOARD BOARD FIONA McGAUCHIE (CHAIR) JACOB VARGHESE (DEPUTY CHAIR) JADA ALBERTS DEBBIE DADON AM DR ANNA FOLEY LINDY HUME AM PhD ANDREW MYER AM SUE PRESTNEY PAMELA RABE MARY VALENTINE AO ALAN WONG DANIELLE LEIGH (OBSERVER) EXECUTIVE MATTHEW LUTTON OAM SARAH NEAL ARTISTIC & PROGRAMMING ANNIE BOURKE BERNADETTE FAM LAURA HALE LAURA MILKE GARNER JO REDFEARN MARLINE ZAIBAK FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION ULRIKE READ LIZ WHITE CONNIE STELLA CAITLYN O’KANE MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS CLAIRE LA GRECA JACQUI BATHMAN KEYANNA BURGHER LAUREN GALLINA TAMARAH SCOTT PUBLICITY TS PUBLICITY GRAPHIC DESIGN HOURS AFTER DEVELOPMENT ALEX BELLEMORE PATRICK CRUMMY EDUCATION LYALL BROOKS

TICKETING & BOX OFFICE PRUE SUTHERLAND FIONA WISEMAN BOX OFFICE STAFF PAUL BUCKLEY PERRI CUMMINGS BRONYA DOYLE CLAIRE DUNCAN CASEY GOULD MELLITA ILICH JULIA LANDBERG BRIGID MEREDITH ISA MUNHOS LIZ WHITE PRODUCTION BLAIR HART BAIRD McKENNA DEXTER VARLEY COINTHA WALKEDEN ROB BALLINGALL MICHAEL CARR BRENDAN JELLIE DELIA SPICER GOFFREDO MAMELI ELIZABETH WHITTON LENNON FOWLER AL BRILL PRODUCTION STAFF LEIA ALEX ASHLEIGH BASHAM GABRIEL BETHUNE SUZIE BROOKS MYLES CAREW GIDEON COZENS NICHOLAS DUNNAND SANDRA DRUMMOND NATHAN EVERS JO FOLEY JUSTIN GARDAM FINN GLEESON LUKE GRANA MITCHELL GUNTHORPE KADIN HAWKER STEPHEN HAWKER JODI HOPE ETHAN HUNTER PATRICK JONES

KHISRAW JONES-SHUKOOR JACK KENNEDY TARAS KOHUT JOSHUA MACKENZIE RILEY McCULLAGH NICHOLAS MOLONEY SAM NIX NICHOLAS PAGES-OLIVER WILLIAM PALAZZO DARREN PEET ASHLEIGH SHEARMAN NATALYA SHIELD JESSICA SMART IVAN SMITH JASPER SPICER DAN SPIELMAN NATHANIEL SY NATALIE VINCENT PHILLIP WATT LACHLAN WATTS OUNIE WITHEROW AITKEN VENUE DANIELLE GIORDANO EMMA CORBETT STEVE HEARNE FIKER GEBREHANA FRONT OF HOUSE STAFF CARA BRODIE MITCHELL BROTZ DANI GODER GEORGE JEFFORD SOPHIE McCRAE TEXAS NIXON-KAIN LUCY SEALE DARCIE SHORT FLYNN SMEATON BARNEY SPICER KATE WASHINGTON BAR STAFF ISSY COMEGNA KIRRA NINER ELLEIA RUSSELL CLAUDE SARMIENTO KAIVU SUVARNA

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