Oasis Magazine - Cairns & Tropical North Queensland Issue 29 - Apr | May 2019 | Page 26

What do you get when you mix the following ingredients together?
A Dad who's run off with a girl not much older than his daughter,
A single Mum who's struggling with the mortgage and her self-image so that she has little time for her teenage
kids, A son who's into internet porn and trolling the parks at night looking for lonely men,
A daughter who spends a lot of time alone in her room on the computer in a chat room or flaunting herself
on the web cam. Her only friend is a chat room buddy who has serious problems of her own.
A talented cast of young actors and some seasoned Rondo regulars,
A director with a unique vision and a proven track record for stimulating, thought-provoking theatre, and
A playwright adept at illuminating contemporary Australian social issues with insight and sensitivity.
What do you get? You get...
The ChatRoom
by Reg Cribb
Directed by Kevin West for Cairns Little Theatre at the Rondo Theatre,
Greenslopes Street from 26th April to 4th May, 2019 at 8pm.
Photography by Paul Barton
The ChatRoom was short listed for the 2004 Patrick White Playwrights' Award, the 2005 Qld Premier's Literary
Award and the 2005 WA Premier's Literary Award. This will be the third of his offerings to be played at the
Rondo following "The Return" in 2011 and the highly successful "Last Cab to Darwin" 2017.
Cribb's writing often explores contentious topics and The ChatRoom is primarily focussed on a theme of
genuine concern for all households where teenage kids have access to the Internet, often unsupervised and
more sinister, where the Internet has direct access to them.
The ChatRoom is an exploration of all the family members. Their basic need as humans for connection in all
it's forms and how life can be de-railed when connection is lost or broken.
This is a family in crisis and the lessons to be learned are laid out for us on stage.
15 yr old Carmen, disconnected from her family and her school peers, seeks out friends in her nightly
excursions in The ChatRoom. She meets her soul mate in Jenna, another teenage girl, but there is a sinister
turn of events which finds her finally befriended by a 48 yr old man.
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