The Wolves Theatre Company's Programme

Three years ago a mature aged actor, Guy May left a note on his bedroom door apologizing to his house- mate for what they would find. A short time before this he’d messaged a few friends stating he  was thinking of leaving. One of them was me. When I received the message, at two in the morning, I was on the phone to another friend who had just been told their cancer was terminal. Instead of calling Guy, I told him to call the support services.

After hearing the news that Guy was gone I completed a play that had been in my head for years. It poured out. I wrote it in two days.

The first person to read it was The Wolves Producer Rohana. We run the Wolves Theatre Company. When I told her it was a suicide prevention play she said, I think that might be too heavy. But after she read it she looked up and said, we have to put this on.

 From its first showing in a small theatre in Prahran to here it has been a remarkable journey.  Without any initial marketing the theatre began to fill through word of mouth. Since then The MTC has had us in their Lawler Theatre and we have been toured to the towns of Sale, Corowa, Yarrawonga and Colac. Our next town is Launceston. 

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Marooned is also being performed several times for the Australian Army as they prepare to roll the play out to several of their mainland bases.  One of their attractions is that the play engages an audience. 

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UPDATE

In the UK. A National Conference of Psychoanalysts and Mental Health Professionals are wrapping up their proceedings 

with a performance of Marooned.

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Below are the help line numbers, if required.

THE CAST

Ben Griffiths

Ben Griffiths (1620): Having trained at the Ballarat Academy of Performing Arts in 2001, Ben’s theatre credits include Pericles in Pericles. Ferdinand, Caliban and then Alonzo in seperate runs of The Tempest, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing and also as Danny Shapiro in Sexual Perversity in Chicago.

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Rohana Hayes

Rohana who plays 768 has been performing and now producing for over 30 years including numerous plays and physical/theatre dance projects in her past life in London including The Three Sisters, Antigone, Marriage a la Mode, The Maids. In 2017 she co-founded The Wolves Theatre where she produced and starred in The Magnolia Tree at La Mama, Australia Dot Com, The Seagull King, Decoupage Skin and Women Men Nazis and Trucks.  Recent film and TV include Please Like Me, Picnic at Hanging Rock and three independent features. As a Producer she has produced The Magnolia Tree and Marooned formerly Sidelined aka Suicide Row.  She Produced a rehearsed reading of the musical Magpie at The Carlton Courthouse. She is passionate about The Wolves and their gutsy challenging attitude.

Daniel Hurst

Daniel is a Melbourne-based actor, dancer, producer, and director. Having performed both onstage and in front of the 

camera in a variety of roles, he is considered a character actor with the ability to embody the energies of the different characters he portrays. As well as graduating from Queensland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drama), Daniel has engaged in numerous acting, improvisation, and clowning classes in order to gain a wider understanding of performance. His most notable works include portraying lost-in-life university dropout Adam in Shane Pike’s Nineteen, chaotic anarchist Karl in Serena Tas’ White Room (which he also produced and co-directed), and most recently, the regrettable suicide victim 134 in Michael Gray Griffith’s Marooned, which was performed for  the Australian Defence Force in Canberra in March 2020, and has continued playing in Melbourne and regional towns throughout Victoria and New South Wales since late 2019. In addition to acting, Daniel has trained with some of Brisbane’s greatest dance teachers in the styles of tap, popping, locking, animation, and krump.

Darren Mort

Darren studied acting for Film & TV at the Colleges of the Arts. He has performed in many stage shows and in later years has been trained 
by the Rehearsal Room. 

Darren has appeared in may TV shows including Neighbours, Underbelly, Lano & Woodley, City Homicide, House Husbands, Blue Heelers and others. His stage credits include the Full Monty, Three Sisters, Desire under the Elms, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the Memory of Water, Toorak Rules, Pippin, Chess, The Music Man, Into the Woods, Working, A Chorus Line and many others.
He has also produced stage shows and films. His recent film TOMMY, produced under the auspices of his Children’s Charity, TO BE LOVED NETWORK has won 12 international Film awards having been selected in 27 film festival including BAFTA and Academy Award Qualifying Events.
It is his first production with Wolves Theatre Company and is thrilled to be cast in this incredible show, MAROONED.

NEW WORK

Please join us for a Reading of a New Australian Play,

"Adrifting."

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A long time ago my mother gave me a framed proverb. I believe in it very much. Even though I have no children of my own I have tried to live by it. It says

There are only two lasting bequests that we can give to our children, one is roots; the other, WINGS!

When I read ‘Adrifting’ I thought of it immediately. I love it. The play I mean. It says so much about the power of women and the frailty of mankind.”

~Amanda Muggleton.

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“Di, her talented but troubled daughter Taylor and their friend Magnolia are facing foreclosure, their only hope is that Di’s mother, Lorraine, a wealthy but notoriously stingy woman, will bail them out. But instead Lorraine arrives on their door step in a Winnebago. She claims she’s given all her wealth to charity and wants them to come live on the road like modern day swag-women.

Is she lying? Has she gone crazy? Or, as she claims, has she found a new star to aim for?

Hilarious and poignant, the reading of this new play, by The Wolves Theatre Company also features Tottie Goldsmith as Magnolia.

Time Date

7pm. 10th May

Location

Brunswick Ballroom.

Tickets $25

BOOK NOW

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Please come support the resurgence of new Australian theatre

           ALEX THEATRE

Fri, 21 May 2021 7:30 PM

Alex Theatre Two

The Magnolia Tree is a play about a broken family whose fractures could be healed tonight by working together to commit a murder, maybe.

Book Now, if you dare.

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ALEX THEATRE 21 MAY BOOK NOW 

DATES

13th May Williamstown Hall Hobsons Bay

14th May The Potato Shed Geelong

15th RRRTAG Colac

16th Birchip

17th Kaniva Shire Hall

21st Alex Theatre St Kilda

22nd May The Moyhu Memorial Hall King Valley

26th May The Forge theatre Bairnsdale

27th May The Wedge Theatre 2 shows

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The Magnolia Tree Reviews Griffith crafts an ingenious script that shocks and confounds. We’re privy to family secrets; confessions and personal boundaries are crossed. Ezra Bix portrayal of the callous and calculating Jack is masterful. He turns the close sisters against each other by alluding to their deceased father’s superannuation that afforded Vicky’s former gambling habit, and Deborah’s so-called ‘borrowing’ of her mother’s rings. The sisters bond wavers and Jack sinks in the verbal punches. He’d been monitoring Vicky’s emails and reveals she’d coerced her siblings into deciding their mother’s fate, as she’d planned to meet-up with her online lover in America.

Deborah teeters back towards Jack’s side, at which point Vicky faces the audience, tears roll down her cheeks and says a heartbreaking line, ‘You get to a point in your life when the only thing you have left is the ability to live with yourself.’ Griffith’s insightful script permits truly outstanding and convincing performances

★★★★ 4/5 stars

By Simi West: Catalyst

The Magnolia Tree This is a must-see Australian play about some of the issues faced by the 'sandwich generation', caught between dealing with ageing parents and growing children. This is a terrific production and a compelling night out.

~Genevieve Frew

Simply Brilliant

★★★★ 4/5 stars Lyn Zelen Theatre People

Michael Gray Griffith has written a play that will cast your morality adrift in an exercise of humanity. The play manages to remain modern and edgy without ever feeling like it is designed to preach or over extend itself. The narrative comfortably sprawls before you with moments of intrigue, devoid of pantomime, and an authentic feeling plot. Running for just over 70 minutes this is a great piece of no frills theatre that cuts to the core of what constitutes a good play. If you like a solid script and want to explore the depths of your own morality – this is the play for you.

Nigel Hawkins InReview Score: 7/10

The play so good, that it brought John Orcsik back to the Theatre after a 30-year absence 

Why not come and meet the Wolves as they prepare to bring this brand new thriller to the stage. 

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A "Rehearsed Reading" of our new play "REAL"

But is it too dangerous for Australian audiences?

Why not come along, watch it and tell us your thoughts?

The esteemed actor John Orcsik will play alongside Ezra Bix
one of Melbourne's most respected theatre actors.

Also on stage will be Elizabeth OCallaghan

and Candice Leask as dangerous Lang, the Wolf.

DATE TIME
Sunday 1st May 2021
2:00 PM

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LOCATION
2 Denham Street, Hawthorn, Vic 3122,

BOOK NOW

Catch the 75 and the 48 tram to stop 23 
or the train to Hawthorn train station.
Lots of free parking too.

The Wolves are bringing New Australian Theatre To The People