The game slows. It’s a dance. A memory, a dream, the body remembers. Muscles tense and release, bones anticipate the landing after the leap we can do this in our sleep. 

We Play on.

When new player Cass joins a suburban netball team, the fragile balance of the group shifts. Secrets, unspoken grievances, and long-held frustrations rise to the surface, turning every pass, pivot, and collision into a reckoning.

Set entirely on the netball court, Contest, written by Australian playwright Emilie Collyer and produced by Space Jump Theatre Company, immerses women of every age, shape, size, and ability in a world governed by rules, expectation, and relentless pressure. Bodies move side by side, sweating, enduring, testing limits. The game becomes a powerful metaphor for resilience, courage, and endurance, both on and off the court, capturing the subtle, fierce, and unrelenting ways women persist.

Blending stylised movement, poetic dialogue, and raw physicality, Contest is a bold, immersive, and unforgettable story of connection, rivalry, and the extraordinary endurance of women. Every moment on the court resonates with intensity, intimacy, and the unflinching reality of human emotion. 

But what still aches after the whistle blows? 

Cast: [alphabetical]

GS:  Melissa Jones

GA:  Willa King

C:     Suz Mawer

GD: Emma Monk

Cass/WA:  Lana Morgan

Written by 2026 Victorian Premier's Literacy Award winner Emilie Collyer

Directed by Kirsty Semaan 

Contest is supported by the Inner West Council and through the Australian Cultural Fund