Maureen
SOFT TREAD ENTERPRISES
The break-out hit of Sydney Festival, RISING Festival Melbourne, Darwin Festival and Adelaide Festival
Equal parts touching and hilarious, Maureen is an homage to older women that celebrates the indomitable voice, wisdom and unapologetic passions of the grande dames who defy invisibility.
Framed by velvet drapes and bedecked with Jatz cracker crumbs and cigarette ash, Maureen invites you into her bohemian living room. She’s here to take you on an intimate journey brimming with witty repartee, well-worn life advice, an exotic array of friends now gone and the dauntless potency of limitless imagination.
With exquisite storytelling, writer and performer Jonny Hawkins transforms into Maureen: a razor-tongued doyenne of Kings Cross in its heyday. Co-created by Nell Ranney, this poignantly funny solo show takes inspiration from Hawkins’ friend, a self-described “working class glamour queen” and one of life’s true eccentrics.
Magnificently flouting many of the rules of drama and narrative, Maureen redefines our concepts of older women. Caustic and moving, it is an uplifting demonstration of the wisdom, vitality, kindness and humour of women too often overlooked or dismissed by society.
An afternoon of wit, imagination and storytelling with a character you won’t forget.
Credits
Written and Performed by Jonny Hawkins
Co-conceived and Directed by Nell Ranney
Set and Costume Design by Isabel Hudson
Lighting Design by Nick Schlieper
Composition and Sound Design by Steve Toulmin
Produced by Soft Tread Enterprises
About the Artists
Jonny Hawkins is an award-winning actor and writer whose work has appeared across stage, film and TV. Also one of Sydney’s best loved DJs and founder of The Dollar Bin Darlings, Jonny preaches disco and love all over the world. Maureen is their first full-length play.
Nell Ranney is a director and producer of original and multi-disciplinary theatre work with credits in production houses including Sydney’s Belvoir Street and Griffin Theatres and London’s Old Vic Theatre.
Soft Tread is a producer of independent theatre and film whose productions have played at venues including the Sydney Opera House, Brooklyn Academy of Music, the National Performing Arts Centre in Mumbai and the legendary Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas. Its films have screened worldwide including at the Berlin Film Festival.
“★★★★★
Wise and abundant with enthusiasm, our host could be the most idiosyncratic, joyous, and mischievous storyteller we’re likely to meet.”
“★★★★½
Hawkins plays her with such magnanimity that she grows in our hearts, gladdens us, saddens us, and makes us want her to live forever.”
“★★★★½
Masterful writing and performance, driven by love and respect... heartwarming depth and humanity – it feels like a hug for the soul.”
“★★★★
Hawkins is utterly bewitching as Maureen.”
“The real jewel of the [Sydney] festival.”
“A beautiful ode to storytelling and to the complexity of older women.”
