Unit 46

2009-05-20T04:22:00.001-07:00

The year was 1996. Suddenly, after four decades of relatively peaceful house-dwelling I found myself in a flat situation, surrounded by other flatees, flatites, or whatever the appropriate term is for those so flattened by life they have to move into a rented unit. It was a life-changing experience. Instead of listening to Chopin or Benny Goodman at night I was treated to expletives in seven different octaves from the unit above. When I complained I was told to talk softly, I’d wake their baby up. Someone from somewhere in the block decided it was their job to clear my mailbox. I’d find my letters opened and abandoned under the staircase. One night a mad Irish woman came knocking on every door asking: “Is this where Michael lives?” I told her I was sometimes known as Michael. She peered drunkenly into my eyes and told me I couldn’t be because she didn’t know me. It was all a new experience for my seven-year-old daughter Jessie, so I bought her a dog as a sort of solace. We had to secret him in and out at night so we wouldn’t be kicked out. The landlord, in fact, was a very gentle Jewish man, who took the frequent trashing of his units with remarkable tolerance. When I commiserated with him after one outrage, he favoured me with that time-honoured Levite shrug and said: “It is not easy being rich.”

The list of iniquities he and we suffered could fill a novel. Instead, I wrote a play. This play. It is, I believe, a play that touches a chord with everyone except Alpha males and dominatrix women. The two characters, Tim and Diane, are not based on anyone, but they could, I believe, be almost anyone. They are loners doing their best to deal with their loneliness in a city of teeming millions. Both their lives have contracted, through no great fault of their own, to the boundaries of their units. Because their lives have become so circumscribed they react with all the more intensity to what happens around them – the snores, the ranting, the songs, the noises of the vacuum cleaner/TV/radio, the smells, weird laughter, gnashing of teeth.

Oh, and one other thing. We are dealing with serious issues here – loneliness, paranoia, obsession, regret. But I believe the most serious way to deal with serious issues is to laugh….Enjoy. unit46.com.au

2009-05-19T06:23:00.000-07:00

EARLY ANNOUNCEMENT ON FACTORY THEATRE WEB

Great news!

The Factory has secured Unit 46, a hit play of the recent Adelaide Fringe Festival, for

a four‐week run at the Factory Theatre in June/July.

It’s 10 years since Sydney audiences had the chance to see this off‐the‐wall comedy

but from critical and audience reactions in Adelaide, it’s lost none of its punch.

The play by Sydney writer Mick Barnes is a keyhole peep into the lives, memories

and all‐out warfare of two apartment dwellers in the inner city. It’s terse, tight and,

as one critic has said “painfully funny”.

That opinion was overwhelmingly endorsed by Adelaide reviewers, with comments

such as...

“unique performance”

“sharp script, clever staging”

“transports the audience”

“a must”.

Leof Kingsford‐Smith, who drew a warm response from Adelaide audiences, will be

joined by accomplished Sydney actor Lucy Miller. The play is staged by in‐demand

Sydney director Andrew Doyle, with Tom Bannerman, the designer.

Click onto our u‐tube tape for a sneak preview of the show.

Unit 46 opens at Factory Theatre June 25 and runs till July 19.

2009-05-14T16:03:00.000-07:00

UNIT 46

The Adelaide Fringe Smash!

‘Apartment living...mad, sad and dangerously funny’

C + 2, Chambers Street, Venue 34. 5 August to 31 August 2009

Peep through the keyhole at enemies, Tim and Diane. Watch them strip, shower, drink and dream together. Separately.

When animals are kept too close together, they go mad, running into walls, attacking each other, even eating each other. Yet humans, designed by nature as hunter/gatherers, ideally suited to roaming great distances, have been forced by the economic necessities of the modern world to live on top of each other in tiny apartments in conditions that would drive any other animal insane.

And we are no different from other animals.

In the new comedy, Unit 46, Australian playwright Mick Barnes shows us the insanity-inducing horrors of neighbours living on top of each other by combining two identical apartments into one. In the theatrical equivalent of a double exposure, two separate lives in two separate apartments play out simultaneously on one set, the counterpoint and symmetry of these lives providing hilarious insight into the the lonely animals that are city-dwelling woman and man.

Leof Kingsford‐Smith plays Tim and Lucy Miller plays Diane, whose lives, unbeknownst to each other, are so similar and intertwined. Directed by one of Australia’s busiest directors, Andrew Doyle.

'Painfully Funny" (Daily Telegraph)

‘Sharp script, clever staging’ (Independent Weekly)

‘A must’ (Express Media)

UNIT 46

Venue: C+2, venue 34.

Dates: 5th August - 31st August 2009

Time: TBC

Ticket prices: £7.50-£10.50 / concs £6.50-£8.50

Venue BO: 0845 260 1234 - www.CtheFestival.com

Fringe BO: 0131 226 0000 - www.edfringe.com

For more press information, interviews or images, please contact Calvin Wynter at pr@greenroompresents.com, visit www.greenroompresents.com or call 020 7669 4103 (diverts to mobile).