Salt
“The thing I loved, the thing I wanted, was that feeling. Before any of it even begins. The last count in the countdown. The premonition of lightning. When a taste hits your tongue – sweet, sour, salt – and your nerves are firing, asking is it good, is it bad, is it going to kill me? Before you truly know whether to spit it out and start again.”
Caitlyn is an up-and-coming child star. Bobby is a beloved comedic icon. Sam is their manager, with the idea to pair them up and make Australian television history. What could possibly go wrong?
Salt pulls back the curtain of nostalgia to reveal the darker side of light entertainment: a whirlwind-memory of video hits and after-school sitcoms, of canned laughter and crocodile tears, of kids growing up too fast and adults refusing to grow up at all. What are we feeding our children? Whose appetite is really to blame?
Salt has been supported by Darebin Arts’ Speakeasy and by Lonely Company, with script dramaturgy by Bridget Mackey.
First presented by La Mama Theatre and She Said Theatre
June 8–18, 2017/ La Mama Courthouse Theatre
Performed by Artemis Ioannides, Brigid Gallacher, and Scott Major
Set Design/ Owen Phillips
Composition & Sound Design/ Raya Slavin
Lighting Design/ Amelia Lever-Davidson
Costumes/ Brynna Lowen with Rose Chong Costumiers
Movement Director/ William McBride
Production & Stage Management/ Piper Huynh
“It is a testament to writer Seanna van Helten that the relationships between the three characters are incredibly complex; their desperate desires, unfulfilled expectations and shifting power dynamics constantly humming below the surface... A poignant retelling of a familiar story [and] a moving exploration of female adolescence and relationships between young women. ”
“A play that is concerned with the way pop culture can shape unreal and impossible expectations… but it goes beyond that to show the consequences… At the end, we have a climax that is cruel and vile but inevitable and true.”
Credit: Taylor | Kelly Photography