Harlots
by Emma Wright
Directed by Janine Watson
A WORLD PREMIERE
“Come, lady, die to live”
Set in an underground refuge, Harlots imagines the women of Shakespeare’s plays who were forced into a terrible bargain: “die to live”. These are the circumstances Shakespeare gave them. The rest is the story he never wrote.
Hidden beneath the world above, the women wait for the men who wronged them to atone before safely returning to the land of the living. But what happened during that waiting? Who else from the canon might have found refuge among them, and who never had the chance?
Part critique and part love letter to the Bard, Harlots interrogates one of literature’s most enduring legacies, asking what happens when we shift our gaze away from kings, princes and tragic heroes, and towards the women whose stories have so often existed only in relation to them. Four hundred years after Shakespeare put pen to paper, it asks why these cycles of violence remain so painfully familiar.
Cast and Creative Team
PRODUCTION COMPANY: New Ghosts Theatre Company | WRITER: Emma Wright | DIRECTOR: Janine Watson | PRODUCERS: Lucy Clements & Emma Wright | STAGE MANAGER: Megan Heferen | PRODUCTION MANAGER: Izzy Morrissey | SET DESIGNER: Kate Beere | COSTUME DESIGNER: Aloma Barnes Siraswar | LIGHTING DESIGNER: Luna Yuet Yee Ng | SOUND DESIGNER: Clare Hennessy | ASSISTANT DIRECTOR & DRAMATURG: Jess Tovey | DRAMATURGICAL CONSULTANT: Marion Potts | INTIMACY & PHYSICAL SAFETY CONSULTANT: Chloe Dallimore | PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Poppy White | ALTERATIONS & SEWING ASSISTANT: Andrea Tan
Cast (of 6): ‘Ana Ika, Ella Prince, Hannah Waterman, Jo Downing, Madeline Li, Megan O’Connell
Dates + Ticketing
Season: 21/08 – 6/09 (previews 21/08 & 22/08, opening night [invitation only] 23/08)
Times: Tues-Fri 7pm, Sat 2pm & 7pm, Sun 5pm
Ticket Prices:
Concession: $38.50-60.50 + booking fee
Previews: $29.70 + booking fee
Cheap Tuesday: $38.50 + booking fee
Adult: $49.50-82.50 + booking fee
Approximate Run Time: 100 minutes
Content Warnings: Strong language; references to physical abuse (including visible injuries such as bruising, though acts of violence are not depicted); forced medication; substance use; death; suicidal ideation; references to domestic violence, rape, suicide, and infanticide; misogyny.
