Winter festival, RISING, has revealed another key feature of its 2024 program. Look forward to an incredible production of S. Shakthidharan’s acclaimed Sri Lankan-Australian saga Counting and Cracking. This monumental tale is coming to Melbourne after a successful premiere season and international tour, including stints at the Edinburgh International Festival and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Counting and Cracking will be co-presented with University of Melbourne Arts and Culture (UMAC) at the Union Theatre. The season will run from Friday May 31 to Sunday June 23.
Counting and Cracking at RISING
This three-act production features a cast of nineteen performers from six countries playing 50 different characters. Following four generations over five decades, you can expect a mixture of Tamil, Sinhalese and English. The story begins on the banks of Sydney’s Georges River when Radha and her son, Siddartha, are scattering the ashes of Radha’s mother. Then, an unexpected call from Colombo brings the past rushing back, and tests the strength of family love.
The show will be co-produced by Belvoir St Theatre and Kurinji, and directed by Belvoir’s Artistic Director Eamon Flack.
“Counting and Cracking is an extraordinary theatrical journey that weaves together the rich tapestry of Sri Lanka’s history and the universal complexities of family love,” said RISING co-artistic director Gideon Obarzanek. “A runaway hit wherever it plays, it’s one of the most relevant and remarkable theatre productions about the universal immigration experience that continues to shape this nation.”
“The stories we choose to believe in underline all our actions, thoughts and feelings,” said writer and associate director S. Shakthidhidharan. “In Counting and Cracking I hope to provide audiences with a new story to believe in: about Australia, about Sri Lanka. It’s a story in which migrants are not asked to discard parts of themselves to fit in, but instead are asked to present their full selves, to expand our idea of what this country can be.”
Counting and Cracking has won the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Literature, the NSW Premier’s Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting, Helpmann Awards for Best Production and Best Production, as well as ten other major arts awards.
It will make its Melbourne debut for RISING, before moving on to Sydney and New York.
RISING will also offer traditional Tamil snacks from local eateries to audiences each night of the show.