Five new plays to be presented as part of MTC’s CYBEC ELECTRIC

Cybec Electric returns to Southbank Theatre from 3-5 March, presenting five fresh and fierce works-in-progress from some of Australia’s most promising new playwrights.

Chenturan Aran, Roshelle Fong, Kristen Smyth, Blayne Welsh and Gideon D. Wilonja will have their plays read by an ensemble of brilliant actors under the guidance of directors Isabella Vadiveloo and Sonya Suares alongside MTC’s literary team.

For over a decade, MTC’s annual series of Cybec Electric play readings has brought the beating heart of theatre to audiences interested in surprising new stories and electric writing. It is a coveted opportunity for audiences to be part of the development process for new Australian stage plays.

MTC Artistic Director Anne-Louise Sarks said:

Supporting new writing is central to the future of Australian theatre and Cybec Electric is a vital part of MTC’s commitment to investing in emerging talent and their work. It continues to provide a platform for the exploration of ideas and for audiences to feel connected to the artistic process. This year’s Cybec Electric playwrights bring us a range of complex, smart, funny and poetic plays and I can’t wait to see how they develop over the course of their time with MTC.

In 2022, Cybec Electric will feature the readings of plays by Chenturan Aran and Kristen Smyth in their entirety as well as excerpts of plays by Roshelle Fong, Blayne Welsh and Gideon D. Wilonja.

Chenturan Aran’s and a side of cut chilli is a razor-sharp and heartfelt comedy about an adoptee trying to find out why he was abandoned, and an adoptive mother afraid of losing her son to an unsolvable wound.

Kristen Smyth’s i got myself arrested because i didn’t feel safe explores the rituals of incarceration, humiliation and the erosion of self. It is a heightened examination of justice and the pursuit of truth, exposing the tragedy of a life lived small.

Mykei by Roshelle Fong is a journey through domesticated apathy, bliss, horror and self-realisation, with a multi-lingual, know-it-all robot dog at the centre of it all.

Blayne Welsh’s AIRCON places us in a world of ecological catastrophe thanks to a sudden rise in global temperature. Within a microcosm of responsibility and shifted blame, it asks the question: If somebody’s actions result in intergenerational victims, does their responsibility become inheritable as well?

And The Way We Were by Gideon D. Wilonja opens the door for audiences to contemplate how race, age, class and privilege can affect personal relationships in contemporary Australia.

Cybec Electric runs from 3–5 March at Southbank Theatre, The Lawler.

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Cybec Electric forms part of MTC’s ongoing commitment to the development of new Australian writing, and is only possible due to the support of the late Dr Roger Riordan AM and The Cybec Foundation

For more information visit mtc.com.au/cybecelectric