Dino Dimitriadis, in association with Red Line Productions, is pleased to present The Shadow Box by Michael Cristofer at the Old Fitz Theatre from November 15.

 

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play, this compelling dramatic triptych follows three terminal cancer patients who dwell in separate cottages on the grounds of a hospital. The three are attended and visited by family and close friends: Agnes and her mother Felicity, estranged further by the latter's dementia; Brian and Beverly, whose marital complications are exacerbated by Brian's new lover, Mark; and Joe and Maggie, unready for the strain of Joe's impending death and its effect on their teenage son.

 

Kim Hardwick (House on the Lake, Unholy Ghosts) directs an accomplished cast including Jackson Blair-West (QUT Fine Arts: Acting), Jeanette Cronin (Queen Bette, Dark Voyager), Anthony Gooley (Inner Voices, All My Sons), Mark Lee (A Place to Call Home, A Conversation), Tim McGarry (My Name is Asher Lev, The Peasant Prince), Fiona Press (Antigone, Is This Thing On?), Ella Prince (Hedda Gabler, Yerma), Kate Raison (The Good Doctor, A Country Practice) and Simon Thomson (That Eye, The Sky, The History Boys).

 

“Anthony Gooley brought this play to Kim Hardwick and I. He’s been trying to get it up for close to four years now,” said producer Dino Dimitriadis. "It’s a beautiful piece and I instantly knew that it needed to be produced. It is an elemental story that charts the triumph of the spirit as the body deteriorates. It transcends time and place to boldly ask us the questions we spend a lifetime avoiding. It urges us to be brave, naked and loving because ultimately life is ephemeral. Although it’s an emotional play, it's quite funny too but most importantly the play is a celebration of living."