THEM shines light on humour and humanity under hardship at Butter Factory Theatre in Wodonga
Humour and humanity overflow as a widely-anticipated play runs in Wodonga this week.
THEM opened to a packed house at The Butter Factory Theatre on Tuesday night, as part of HotHouse Theatre's 25th season.
Award-winning playwright Samah Sabawi takes a tender look at love, honour and sacrifice during times of war.
With humour, laughter and song, THEM transports audiences into extraordinary circumstances to reveal their shared humanity in the ordinary moments that shape our lives.
Sabawi said she was inspired to pen the play to highlight the conditions facing people before they became refugees.
She wanted to remind people that refugees were not faceless numbers.
"Any of us could be them," she said.
"Our lives even in tragic moments have moments of humanity and humour and love and kindness, so when I wrote THEM I wanted to bring the music, the humour and love as well as the horrific reality of life in a war zone," she said.
THEM cast member Claudia Greenstone said she was immediately drawn to the script and the complexity of the characters.
She said Sabawi had a rare gift in the way she dealt with difficult topics.
"The humour is very dominant and cleverly done," she said.
"It's a great foil to the more serious nature of the material in the play; it counteracts the content.
"In times of war people and their families have complex decisions to make and it's not always obvious what to do."
Sabawi wrote the first draft for THEM in a hotel room in Finland during 2015.
"At the time, there were protests in the street of Helsinki by members of the far right who took the opportunity of marking Finland's national day to demand tighter immigration measures against what they viewed as the wave of invasion of asylum seekers into their country," she said.
"The divisive 'us' and 'them' dehumanizing discourse espoused in that protest is also prevalent in many western liberal nations including here in Australia where during the last several years, I've witnessed the rise of similar rhetoric."
THEM will be at the Butter Factory Theatre in Wodonga tonight at 6.30pm (includes 8pm LaTrobe Conversation), Thursday, 7.30pm, Friday, 7.30pm (includes post-show Q&A with the cast), and Saturday, 3pm and 7.30pm.
BY JODIE BRUTON