The cult of celebrity dissected in Nick Enright’s A Man With Five Children.

Written in 1999, Enright pre-empted the current discussion on reality TV and public obsession with manufactured celebrity.

Inspired by the popular documentary 7-Up and the effect it had on its participants, A Man With Five Children chronicles the lives of five diverse Australians, who become celebrities via reality TV, and are held in the public eye from childhood through to adulthood.   

Gerry is a documentary maker who sets out to capture the lives of five children on film. One day a year, every year, until they turn 21. As the children’s hopes and heartaches are played out on national television for the public’s entertainment, questions are raised. Is Gerry an observer or is the camera distorting their lives? Are the participants his subjects, his children or his creations? But as long as it makes for good television and the public still want it, Gerry just keeps on filming.

A Man With Five Children invites the audience into a world of fractured celebrity, distorted vision and audience complicity. Nick Enright’s insightful drama about the power of the media and the cult of celebrity is more relevant now than ever.

This is a rare opportunity to see one of Nick Enright’s finest works and his final major play. 

Directed by leading Australian director Anthony Skuse. 

Supported by the Enright Family