Australian Premiere of #MeToo inspired thriller YOU & ME opening in Perth

From the company that brought the award-winning The Vagina Monologues to Fringe World 2021, Lit Live presents a new, intense, emotionally charged play with a unique twist.

Lit Live is Perth’s premiere boutique literature in performance company. With professional actors and musicians, Lit Live performs regularly at a variety of interesting venues, matching brilliant international short fiction with great live music.

You & Me is a domestic drama and a psychological thriller. A young woman unexpectedly comes to meet her husband after work. She says she just fancied a date night together, but in fact she has something important to ask him…

Set in a recording studio, the two actors, Caitlin Beresford-Ord and Andrew Hale, are recording a new play but decide they want to swap roles – they are bored with playing familiar roles.

As the story unfolds, the role reversals challenge preconceptions and offer a subtle, sometimes funny, always provocative approach to a well-known, cliché-ridden issue. Though inspired by #metoo, this isn’t a story about men in positions of power, it’s a story about you and me, about ordinary people and everyday sexism.

Dan Rebellato is a leading British dramatist, and has written extensively for BBC Radio 3 and 4. He is also Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Royal Holloway London. Dan said:

Like most people, I was very moved by the #MeToo movement and the waves of revelations about exploitative and predatory behaviour carried out by men in the worlds of arts and politics. But I was looking for a form that would give the play a particular way into thinking about the issue.

Lit Live producer Sarah McNeill said:

As soon as I heard this play I knew it was one for our #MeToo and #TimesUp moment. It is a time for honesty, debate and active support for those brave enough to speak up. But it is also a time for empathy, and in this play of cross-casting, it has a genuinely provocative and challenging effect that will trip the listener up at certain moments.”

You & Me plays at of Aces at The Maj as part of their 2022 season, which sees 2 venues, 17 shows, 8 premieres, 70 performers and over 100 performances. The hand-picked variety program, with performances across music, cabaret, comedy, theatre, opera and magic, opens from now until Saturday February 12th at Perth’s iconic His Majesty’s Theatre.

For tickets and more information, visit the Fringe World website.