‘I wanna wear jeans, go to the loo. Guess I wanna be a human being.’

About

Arty is huge. Ginormous. Morbidly and grossly obese, he’s in need of a gastric bypass to save his life. At over 400 kilos, he’s the world’s fattest teenager.

Arty is also being followed by a reality TV crew. Will he lose the kilos needed to have the op? Will he survive to eat another cream puff? Will Louise, his Pathways-to-Work officer, transform his life in ways he never imagined?

Unapologetically satiric, Beached is also the moving story of a man imprisoned in his own body. It lays bare the mercenary nature of reality TV, and turns the microscope on society’s insatiable appetite for human misery.

Beached won the 2010 Patrick White Playwrights’ Award and was shortlisted for the 2011 Griffin Award. It pairs the razor sharp wit of Melissa Bubnic with the imaginative direction of Shannon Murphy (This Year’s Ashes, Porn.Cake).

Cast & Creatives

Director Shannon Murphy
Set and Costume Designer James Browne
Lighting and AV Designer Verity Hampson
Sound and AV Designer Steve Toulmin
Dramaturg Kit Brookman
Assistant Director Liz Arday
With Gia Carides, Arka Das, Blake Davis and Kate Mulvany

Performance Times

PERFORMANCE DATES
Previews 19, 20, 22, 23 July
Season 26 July – 31 August

Subscriber Briefing post-show 30 July

PERFORMANCE TIMES
Monday – Friday 7pm
Saturday 2pm and 7pm

Run time: approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes with no interval.

Video

Interview with Shannon Murphy and Melissa Bubnic, Beached

Behind the Scenes with Kate Mulvany, Beached

Behind the Scenes with Blake Davis, Beached

Behind the Scenes with Gia Carides, Beached

Behind the Scenes with Arka Das, Beached

Reviews

“Writer Melissa Bubnic and director Shannon Murphy have given us a genuinely outstanding show, from the structure down to the detail… Beached is really fabulous theatre: unusual, incisive, and touching. Not to be missed.” Jodi McAlister, Australian Stage

“The always impressive director Shannon Murphy has done another fine job with a wonderful new work, deploying a cast that are, without exception, a deadset delight to watch.” Chris Hook, The Daily Telegraph

“Shannon Murphy and her fine cast have made something substantial and highly entertaining out of a confection that could so easily have been mere fairy floss.” Diana Simmonds, StageNoise

“Beached is a well-crafted play that gets to the heart of human weakness and exposes the vulnerable.” Bronwyn Fullerton, Sydney Arts Guide

Blog Posts

BEACHED: FROM PAGE TO GRIFFIN STAGE

20.05.13

Playwright Hilary Bell gives us an insight into our upcoming Page to Stage course for Beached. Griffin and I are very excited about the new course we’re launching in June. While our other courses focus on the practical side of...

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BEACHED: FROM PAGE TO GRIFFIN STAGE

03.04.13

Playwright Hilary Bell has taken to the Griffin Blog to give us a sneak peek into the exciting new course, Beached: From Page to Stage.  This brand new workshop gives you the opportunity to experience the entire process of putting on a show, from...

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BEACHED: 19 JULY - 31 AUGUST

21.06.13

Arty is huge. Ginormous. At over 400 kilos, he’s the world’s fattest teenager, in desperate need of a gastric bypass to save his life. Big questions loom as he is followed by a reality TV crew. Will he lose the...

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DESIGNING BEACHED

15.07.13

Designer James Browne talks us through his own nightmarish reality TV experience and how it has informed his design for Beached.

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