The Hypotheticals

About

Brown’s Mart and Artback NT in association with The Last Great Hunt present, The Hypotheticals

Returning for a Northern Territory tour, after a sell-out Darwin Festival 2021 Season, The Hypotheticals is both a deeply personal story and a work of imagination for the writers and performers Jeffrey Jay Fowler and Sarah Reuben, as they contemplate their futures and the future of their (yet to exist) children.

Meet two best friends in their mid-30’s – a single woman and a partnered gay man who are deciding whether to have a baby together.

She’s the daughter of immigrants, living on unceded land. He’s a middle-class Australian who has grown up in a world that told him he could be anything he dreams of, but he hasn’t really become much. Together they ask where do you belong in your family’s history? What does it mean to bring a child into this world that’s burning? And if a man is gay, isn’t that evolution’s way of telling him to step out of the gene pool? But then, isn’t becoming a parent a natural evolutionary instinct? Is it a right? Is it right for them? And what happens if you have a kid and just get a really annoying one?

Winner of the Brown’s Mart Theatre Award in the 2020 NT Literary Awards, with a sold out premiere season at Darwin Festival 2021, The Hypotheticals is a hilarious and savvy exploration of evolution, the human race, fantasy and fear.

Please be aware, The Hypotheticals contains strong language and adult themes.

“…what brings this work home is the candid honesty that Fowler and Reuben bring to not only their script, but to their powerhouse performances.”                        Geoffrey Williams, Stage Whispers

This project was funded by the Northern Territory Government, the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body and Playing Australia.

Cast & crew

Jeffrey Jay Fowler|Writer/Performer

Jeffrey Jay Fowler is a playwright, dramaturg, director and actor. He wrote and acted in award-winning shows A History of Drinking and ELEPHANTS. He has performed and co-created FAG/STAG(winner Scotsman Fringe First 2017), Perpetual Wake, All that Glitters, and LeNOR{THE RAIN} with The Last Great Hunt, of which he is a founding artist.

Among the shows he has directed are Girl Shut Your Mouth, Blithe Spirit, The Eisteddfod (winner 2017 PAWA Best Director and Best Mainstage Play), and In The Next Room, or The Vibrator Play for Black Swan State Theatre Company.

Jefferey Jay was Associate Director of Black Swan from 2014 – 2017, and then he was their Director of New Writing for 2018 and 19. His postgraduate studies were in directing at NIDA in 2010. In 2020 Jeffrey Jay was awarded the NT Literary Award for The Hypotheticals which he co-wrote with Sarah Reuben.

Sarah Reuben | Writer/Performer

Sarah is a Darwin-based theatre maker, performer, and producer. Her performance credits include new Babylon for knock-em-down Theatre, The Laramie Project for Black Swan state Theatre Company, Pollyanna for Weeping Spoon, How I learned to Drive for Mockingbird Theatre Company, and the Hurting Game for Brainstorm Productions. For her own theatre company, Ruby Gaytime Productions, she has written four shows: Best, Short Change, Death Party and This Jew Sits.

Sarah co-created I’ll Tell you in Person which had seasons at both Darwin and Perth Festival and Lower the Bar for Sarah and Kyle Productions. Her improvisation credits include The Big HOO HAA!, Gladiators, Danger Hour, and Cliffhanger. Sarah is co-creator and performer with the nationally touring show Shania choir, and in 2020 was awarded the NT Literary Award for The Hypotheticals which she co-wrote with Jeffrey Jay Fowler.

Jessica Devereux | Choreographer/Movement Director

As an independent maker, Jess choreographed and performed ‘Silver Sky’ a solo work at Darwin Festival ‘12 and ‘Beautiful Noise’ ’16 a music dance collaboration with Kris Keogh and a team of performers from around Australia.

Jess has sat on panels for National Dance Forum, Australia Council for the Arts, Next Wave’s Curatorial Advisory Panel, and as co-curator for Dance Speaks performance-lecture series. She has been awarded Artist Residencies at Fling NSW, Territory Wildlife Park NT, Tasdance TAS, Heritage Hill Dandenong VIC and P-AF France.

Jess is Artistic Associate and Dance Animateur at Tracks Dance and is currently developing a new work ‘Mess of a Mudrā’ in collaboration with Venaska Cheliah.

Production Dramaturg | Chris Isaacs

Sound Designers | James Mangohig & Serina Pech

Lighting Designer | Tommy Lydiard

Content Warning | Strong Language, Adult Themes

Please be aware, The Hypotheticals contains strong language and adult themes.

Resources

If you attended a show during this tour, we ask you to kindly complete a very short survey to help us deliver the best experience for our audience possible.

https://culturecounts.cc/s/4QTteF/splash

Thank you

Itinerary

Totem Theatre

Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Ended
Start:
End:

Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start

Ended
Start:
End:

Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts & Culture Centre

Katherine, Northern Territory
Ended
Start:
End:

Gove Arts Theatre

Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory
Ended
Start:
End:

Bar will open at 6.30pm for a 7.30pm show

Ended
Start:
End:

Bar will open at 6.30pm for a 7.30pm show

Brown's Mart Studio

Darwin, Northern Territory
Ended
Start:
End:
Ended
Start:
End:

Contact

Evan Saunders

Performing Arts Manager

PO Box 535, Darwin, NT 0801

performing@artbacknt.com.au

08 8941 1444