VCE Drama and Theatre Studies2013 Playlist
VCE Drama and Theatre Studies 2013 Playlists
The following plays have been selected for study in 2013. This list should be used in conjunction with requirements set out in the VCE Drama Study Design 2007–2014 and VCE Theatre Studies Study Design 2007–2014.
Notes
1. Schools should use this information to select play/s as required for Units 3 and 4 Drama and Theatre Studies and make bookings in a timely manner. Note, details regarding performance dates and times should be confirmed when booking as changes may occur.Please check the February edition of the VCAA Bulletin VCE, VCAL & VET for updated information.
2. While the VCAA considers all plays on this list suitable for study, teachers should be aware that in some instances sensitivity might be needed where particular issues or themes are explored. Teachers should make themselves aware of these issues and themes prior to students viewing the play and/or studying the playscript, for example by reading the playscript, talking with the theatre company and/or attending a preview performance. Information provided in this notice about themes and/or language used in specific plays is a guide.
3.Schools should note that in some plays a variety of suggestive and potentially offensive words and phrases are used. They occur with intermittent frequency. However, this language may invite adverse comment from some areas of the community. This information is provided in the entry for each play.
4. For VCE Theatre Studies Unit 3, students must study the playscript and the performance.For this unit the only version of the playscript that students are required to study isthe one used as the basis for the performance students will attend.In some cases this playscript will be a ‘working script’.
5.For VCE Drama Unit 3 and Theatre Studies Unit 4, students are NOT required to study the playscript. The playscript can be a valuable learning resource in these units, however theatre companies are not obliged to provide copies of the script for these plays.
Drama Unit 3 2013 Playlist
The following plays have been selected for study in 2013.This list should be considered in conjunction with the requirements set out in Unit 3 Outcome 3 in the VCE Drama Study Design. Students will undertake an assessment task based on the performance of a play on the Playlist. Question/s will also be set on the performances of the plays in the end-of-year Drama written examination.
Notes
1.Information provided in this notice about themes and/or language used in specific plays is a guide.While the VCAA considers all plays on this list suitable for study, teachers should be aware that in some instances sensitivity might be needed where particular issues or themes are explored. Teachers should make themselves aware of these issues and themes prior to students viewing the play and/or studying the playscript, for example by reading the playscript, talking with the theatre company and/or attending a preview performance.
2.Schools should note that inBeached, Button and No Child a variety of suggestive and potentially offensive words and phrases are used. They occur with intermittent frequency. However, this language may invite adverse comment from some areas of the community.
1.Beached by Melissa Bubnic
Produced by: Melbourne Theatre Company
Venue: Southbank Theatre, Lawler Studio
Season: 22 April – 10 May, performances at 1.30 pm and 7.30 pm Mon–Fri, except Anzac Day. See mtc.com.au for complete performance schedule.
Tickets: metro school groups $24 per student, regional school groups $21 per student, 1 complimentary teacher ticket per 10 students, additional adult tickets $40, youth tickets $25
Bookings and enquiries: MTC Education, or (03) 8688 0963
Beached is a very contemporary and highly satirical comedy about Arty. Arty is larger than life; in fact he is obese.He desperately wants to change his life, but his mum has other ideas! Essentially Beached is a coming of age story about a young man who longs for a normal life. The play explores consumer culture, individual difference, disability, exclusion, reality TV and the media. The theatrical styles in Beached are heightened and very non-naturalistic, including aspects of the absurd, magic realism and black comedy. Four actors play approximately 15 roles. The stagecraft will incorporate puppetry, multi-media and animation. The play is written with the intention of being shocking and this is, in part, what makes the satire so effective. The audience is supposed to gasp at the inappropriateness and lack of political correctness.
Warning: Contains infrequent use of coarse language, some challenging themes, some sexual references.
2.Boxman by Daniel Keene
Produced by: Regional Arts Victoria co-produced with Big West Festival
Venues and season: 2 April – 4 May
2 April, 8.00 pm / Shirley Burke Theatre, Parkdale13 April, 3.00 pm and 7.00 pm / Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat
15 April, 8.00 pm / Benalla Performing Arts Centre
16 April, 7.30pm / Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre
18 April, 1.00pm and 8.00 pm / Frankston Arts Centre
19 April, 8.00 pm / Burrinja Cultural Centre, Upwey
23 April, 11.00 am / Wyndham Civic Centre, Werribee
24 April, 8.00 pm / Wyndham Civic Centre, Werribee
26 April, 7.00 pm / Gasworks Arts Park, Albert Park
27 April, 4.00pm and 8.00 pm / Gasworks Arts Park, Albert Park
29 April, 8.00 pm / Colac Otway Performing Arts and Cultural Centre
30 April, 3.00 pm and 7.30 pm / Kyneton Town Hall, Kyneton
1 & 2 May, 8.00 pm / Geelong Performing Arts Centre
3 May, 11.00 am and 8.00 pm / Geelong Performing Arts Centre
4 May, 1.00 pm and 8.00 pm / Geelong Performing Arts Centre
Bookings: Please contact venues directly
Enquiries: Regional Arts Victoria Education and Families Officer, Sarah Bell, or (03) 9644 1808
Boxman is a one-actor performance that tells the story of a displaced African man who finds himself living in a makeshift cardboard home in a Footscray Park. The play explores social issues of homelessness, the plight of child soldiers, asylum seekers juxtaposed with Western consumerism. The performance includes non-naturalistic elements of heightened language, puppetry, multiple time frames, transformation of props, song and direct address.
Warning: Contains some challenging themes.
3.Button by Carole Patullo and Jane Bayly
Produced by: Dramatico/La Mama
Venue: La MamaCourthouse Theatre, 349 Drummond Street, Carlton
Season: 29May – 16June
Wed& Sun 6.30pm, Thu–Sat 7.30pm, matinees Wed at 1.00 pm and Thu at 11.00 am.
Tickets: Students, concession and teachers accompanying students $30 (including show, after show forum and published copy of script)
Bookings and enquiries: La Mama (03) 9347 6948 or
What holds us together? I imagined being here. Funny where you end up. Big things, little things… an ingrown hair, the famine, favourite pen, no evidence of a cohesive plan, mangoes, x-rays, dinner on the table, a noise through the wall. To push or not to push…
Button is a performance about two women who live alone but side by side. One day they meet over a jar of buttons and an awkward friendship begins. They share longings and secrets and discover more than they bargained for. Button investigates connection and disconnection between human beings anduses a non-linear narrative revealing story and character through dance, gesture, direct address, song and live sound-accompaniment.
Warning: Contains infrequent use of coarse language.
4.Cut Snake by Dan Giovannoni, Amelia Evans and Paige Rattray
Produced by: Arthur/Theatre Works
Previews: 25–26 February, 7.00 pm
Season: 27 February – 9 March, 7.00 pm, matinee performances at 11.30am Wed, Fri additional weekdays by arrangement
Venue: Theatre Works, 14 Acland Street, St Kilda. The performance will take place in a secret location close to Theatre Works
Enquiries: or (03) 9534 4879
Bookings: (03) 9534 3388
Tickets: students $20 (plus $1.00 booking fee; one complementary adult ticket per 10 students), adults $30 plus booking fee, concession/non student groups $25 plus booking fee
Can you ever get over the death of a loved one –especially a teenager? How do you live an extraordinary life in an ordinary world? How do you maintain connection with your friends? How can you look to the future with hope when the adult world seems so depressing? Cut Snake explores these questions in a truthful and complex way.The story begins with Jumper narrating his own death in a bus accident in Asia, and then goes forward and back in time as we learn more about him, his friends and what effect his death has had on them. Three actors present multiple characters in a performance that includes physical theatre, dance, direct address, character transformation and cross gender casting.
Warning: Contains infrequent use of coarse language, and some challenging themes.
5.No Child… written and performed by Nilaja Sun
Produced by:in Australia byTheatre Works
Venue: Theatre Works, 14 Acland Street, St Kilda
Season: 7–19 May Tue–Sat at 8.00pm, Wed & Thu at 1.00pm, Sun at 5.00pm
Bookings and enquiries:
or (03) 9534 3388
Tickets: students $25 (plus $1.00 booking fee, 1 teacher free per 10 students), adults $45 (plus booking fee), concession $35 (plus booking fee)
Venue: Geelong Performing Arts Centre, 50 Little Malop St, Geelong
Season: Friday 31 May @ 1.00 pm and 7.00 pm
Bookings & Enquiries: Kelly Clifford, Youth and Education Program Coordinator, (03) 5225 1207,
Tickets: students $20 (1 teacher free for every 20 students or part thereof), adults $35 inclusive of $3.70 booking fee,concession $30 inclusive of $3.70 booking fee
In No Child writer and performer Nilaja Sun, tells the story of her experiences as a teaching artist at Malcolm X High School in New York City. Using seamless transformation of character on a minimal set, the performance explores the staging of a student production Our Country’s Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker, a play about a group of convicts who perform a play in Sydney in the 1790s. No Child takes the audience on a journey of personal triumph as the students, despite the various challenges they face, present a performance for their friends and families. The set is five chairs, and the only prop is a mop.The minimalist nature of the design is what highlights the strength of the performer and one of the charms of the work.No Child affirms the power of theatre and good teaching!
Warnings: Contains infrequent use of coarse language.
Note: Script is available from
6. School Dance by Matthew Whittet
Produced by:Arts Centre Melbourne presents a Windmill Theatre production
Venue:Playhouse Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne
Season: 10–14 & 16–20 April at 6.30pm and 17–19 April at 1.00 pm
Tickets: students $14, general public $29/$26.50 (4-plus tickets)
School group bookings at $14 per ticket are available to all performances when booked through a teacher:email phone (03) 9281 8582
Bookings and enquiries: Arts Centre Melbourne, 1300 182 183 or
Comprehensive booking forms are available at
Your school can apply for subsidy online via the First Call Fund. Go to artscentremelbourne.com.au/firstcallfund or phone (03) 9281 8714
This is a story of three teenage boys.
They're going to the school dance.
They're on a mission. But they are losers.
First there's Matt. He's 15, although he doesn't look it. Then there's Luke, also 15. Luke likes dancing. And for a loser, he's pretty good at it. Neither Matt nor Luke has a girlfriend (if you hadn't already guessed).
Then there's Jonathon. Even though he's taller, he's only 14. He's excited about the dance - as long as he doesn't run into Derek Sturgess …
These three are the awkward kids. The invisible teens. Fuelled by a diet of raging hormones and mee goreng noodles, they exist in a misfit realm, navigating complex waters with little success.
A highly personal work that, just like its central protagonists, is funny, sad, scary, weird, really stupid, endearing and repulsive… (Windmill Theatre website)
A new Australian theatre piece filled with humour and creative innovation, School Dance explores a range of themes including the awkwardness, loneliness, family, social and school issues of adolescence with poignancy and imagination. It is littered with cultural references and metaphors, using pop, gaming and other aspects of modern film culture to explore the lives of three misfit protagonists. The theatrical style is episodic and the work leaps across time as we follow the character’s journeys towards making it big at the school dance.
Warning: Contains infrequent use of coarse language and some challenging themes.
Theatre Studies Unit 3
Notes
1.For this unit, students must study the playscript in addition to viewing a performance of a selected play. Students must study the playscript used as the basis for development of the performance they attend; in some cases, this will be a ‘working script’ provided by the theatre company.Students are not required to study multiple versions of the script. Playscripts are available through commercial sources or in some cases will be made available by the theatre companies for all plays on the Unit 3 Theatre Studies Playlist. Further information is provided below in relation to specific plays.
2.Information provided in this notice about themes and/or language used in specific plays is a guide.
3.While the VCAA considers all plays on this list suitable for study, teachers should be aware that in some instances sensitivity might be needed where particular issues or themes are explored. Teachers should make themselves aware of these issues and themes prior to students viewing the play and/or studying the playscript, for example by reading the playscript, talking with the theatre company and/or attending a preview performance.
4.Schools should note that in Dance of Death,Other Desert Cities, Robot Vs Art and The Cluba variety of suggestive and potentially offensive words and phrases are used. This language may invite adverse comment from some areas of the community.
1.Dance of Deathby Strindberg andAfter Strindbergby Durrenmatt in a new translation of the Dürrenmatt by Tom Holloway
Produced by:Malthouse Theatre
Venue:Beckett Theatre, The Malthouse, Sturt Street, Southbank
Season:(previews 18–20 April, 7.30pm)21 April – 10 May, Sun 5.00 pm, Tue 6.30 pm, Wed–Fri 7.30 pm, Sat 2.00 pm & 7.30pm with additional matinees on 2 & 9 May at 1.00 pm
Tickets:$23.50per student for metro school bookings, $21.50 per student for regional school bookings
Bookings and enquiries:(03) 9685 5157 or
Jacek Koman and Belinda McClory play Alice and Edgar, whose marriage would be perfect, if they didn’t want each other dead. These are the characters that inspired Edward Albee’s George and Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?Dance of Death is a blistering black comedy. Friedrich Dürrenmatt has stripped the sentiment out of the Strindberg classic to deliver a depiction of wedded hell as brutally hilarious as a wrestling match refereed by Beckett. Director, Matt Lutton is staging the production in traverse so the audience is sitting ringside. The non-naturalistic design is met with hyper-real performances. The intimacy and ferocity of this performance in the Beckett Theatre will have you on the edge of your seat.
Note:Students should study the Holloway script available throughaustralianplays.orgnot the scripts by Strindberg or Durrenmatt. The script is available from 30 January 2013.
Warning: Contains frequent language that some members of the community may find offensive. Also contains challenging themes. Schools are advised to read the script before booking to attend a performance of this play.The script is available from australianplays.org
2. The Good Person of Sichuan by Bertolt Brecht adapted by Laurence Strangio
Produced by:La Mama Theatre/Laurence Strangio
Venue: La Mama Courthouse, 349 Drummond St, Carlton
Season: 8–26 May, Wed & Sun 6.30pm, Thu–Sat 7.30pm, weekday matinees Wed 1.00 pm & Thu 11.00 am
Tickets: students and accompanying teachers $20.00 (includes after-show forum and notes), adults $25.00
Bookings and enquiries: La Mama (03) 93476948 or
This production of The Good Person of Sichuan offers a contemporary interpretation of this iconic work. The production is set in the Epic Theatre style but also reflects influences of Boal’s Forum Theatre model. The production uses non-naturalistic acting, episodic structure, songs and narration to examine the story of Shen Te, asking the question ‘How can good people stay good in a world of poverty and cruelty?’
The cast will include seven actors, one who plays the central double role of Shen Te/Shu Ta and the others each taking multiple roles, often simultaneously.
Note:Various translations of this play are available and schools should select one for study prior to attending the performance. Laurence Strangio's adaptation will be discussed in notes provided at the after-show forum.
3. Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz
Produced by: Melbourne Theatre Company
Venue:Southbank Theatre, The Sumner
Season:2 March – 17 April 2013, previews, 8.00 pm, Mon& Tue 6.30 pm, Wed 1pm 8pm, Thuand Fri 8.00 pm, Sat 4.00 pm 8.30pm
Tickets:metro school groups $24 per student, regional school groups $21 per student, 1 complimentary teacher ticket per 10 students, additional adult tickets $40, youth tickets $25
Bookings and enquiries: MTC Education, or (03) 8688 0963
Former Republican Senator Lyman Wyeth and his wife Polly have it all: wealth, fame and a political legacy of real muscle. In the sun-drenched comfort of Palm Springs they welcome their family back home for Christmas for the first time in years. But when their daughter Brooke announces she’s written a tell-all memoir about the incident that changed their lives, they feel old wounds begin to re-open. Starring Robyn Nevin, this production will feature work byAssociate Artistic Director Sam Strong and the stage design of visual artist Callum Morton.
Other Desert Cities is a contemporary American play in a naturalistic style that raises interesting issues concerning families, politics, war and morality. It contains many challenging ideas, and does not provide any easy answers. The action takes place over twenty-four hours.
Warning: Contains infrequent use of coarse language, some challenging themes and a suicide reference
4. Robot Vs Art by Travis Cotton
Produced by:La Mama/Travis Cotton
Venue: La MamaCourthouse Theatre, 349 Drummond Street, Carlton