CUSP
About
How do you move into the future, when your past keeps dragging you backwards?
Elvis wants Rosie. Rosie wants to escape. Maddie doesn’t know what the hell she wants, but it sure isn’t this.
While Rosie weighs up the needs of community with her own life dreams, Elvis juggles a life of crime with a tougher path on the straight-and-narrow, and Maddie faces life as a single parent.
CUSP juxtaposes the Northern Territory’s vast Top End landscape with the turbulent lives of three emerging adults as they swim against the tide of irrevocable change; balancing choice versus fate in a world where, as Elvis observes “Some people just get better choices than others.”
‘CUSP’ is a love letter to the people and landscape of Australia’s Top End, in particular our youth, who hold the future so delicately and respectfully in their more-than-capable hands. We hope you enjoy this ride.
Mary Anne Butler, writer
Winner in the 53rd Annual AWGIE Awards for the category ‘Theatre for Young Audiences’.
Winner in the Northern Territory Literary Awards for the category ‘Brown’s Mart Theatre Award’.
‘CUSP’ was produced and created in partnership by the Australian Theatre for Young People and Brown’s Mart Theatre.
Cast & crew
Mary Anne Butler – Writer
Fraser Corfield – Director
Jane FitzGerald – Dramaturg
Cj Fraser-Bell – Set Designer
Jessie Davis – Lighting Designer
Brad Fawcett – Sound Designer
Kate Atkinson – Tour Manager
Chris Kluge – FX/LX Technician/Operator, and lighting re-design for the Darwin Festival season at Brown’s Mart, 2023
Rosealee Grimes [nee Pearson] – Cultural Consultant
With
Lakesha Grant, aka Kootsie Don – as Rosie
Joshua McElroy – as Elvis
Abbey Morgan – as Maddie
Isaac Harley [Understudy]
Mema Munro [Understudy]
Resources
Reviews
I really enjoyed it. I grew up in rural Western Australia, it’s really, really refreshing for me to hear language and words and characters that I am familiar with.
Griffin Theatre, Sydney, Opening Night Reviews
The target audience might be decades younger than you, but this ATYP production grips regardless of age.
Jason Blake, AUDREY Review, 16 March 2020
Mary Anne Butler’s new play for ATYP amplifies youthful voices and depicts difficult choices faced by Top End teenagers on the threshold of adulthood.
Elissa Blake, AUDREY Review, 19 February 2020
This is a good, fast moving night at the theatre.
David Kary, Sydney Arts Guide, 15 March 2020
Butler’s scintillating dialogue keeps us engrossed in the personalities she introduces. Director Fraser Corfield brings sincerity and honesty to the play, creating a show with genuine resonances.
Suzy Wrong, Suzy Goes See, 13 March 2020
Wow. What an incredible privilege to watch those three talented young people perform and share such a powerful, moving story. We all loved it. It is just so relatable and shows context, history, and trauma – which is so often missed, especially within regards to media portrayals of young people and how we “blame individuals”. A couple of young people said it was ‘intense…’ & ‘not quite what they were expecting but so great’. One young person chose to stay back to see if she could meet the actors (and she did) which was an extra treat. I really hope the show can continue and reach even more audiences. It’s a gift and talking point.
Belinda Tessieri, Youth Engagement Officer at the Gold Coast Youth Service
I just saw the play (on Friday) and it was AMAZING, really powerful, all the youth sector reps who came to the Sydney show were blown away. I am sure (you, your Youth Council and) other young people or youth workers who see it will think the same”
Kate Munro, CEO of Youth Action, Sydney