An unflinching and constantly surprising drama about how we make sense of who we are through our often fraught relations with others. Winner of the Best Play Award at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.

Shane, sixteen and scared shitless, has fled small-town Australia for downtown Sydney. Adrift among the lonely hearts and heady thrills of Darlinghurst Road, Shane attempts to navigate the troubled waters of his past toward a brighter future.

Tommy Murphy's Strangers in Between was first performed by Griffin Theatre Company in Sydney in 2005, and received its UK premiere at the King's Head Theatre, London, in 2016, directed by Adam Spreadbury-Maher.

About the Author

Tommy Murphy is an Australian playwright best known for his stage and screen adaptations of Timothy Conigrave's memoir Holding the Man, which won numerous awards including Best Play at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, an award he also won for Strangers in Between.

Reviews

'A wise and witty coming-of-age play about facing fears, about friendships forged across across the generations, and about making your own surrogate family. The tone combines the sharp and the sweet, the charmingly funny, the slightly rose-tinted and the completely explicit... Murphy gives all of his characters hidden depths'

* Independent *

'Tugs the heartstrings as well as constantly jolting the funny bone... Tommy Murphy's exquisitely written play has a bewitching charm, poetry, subtle and sometimes shocking twists, honesty, insight, great depth and terrific one-liners'

* The Reviews Hub *

'An earnest and thought-provoking story of loneliness and uncertainty'

* Everything Theatre *

'Funny, moving and surprising... Tommy Murphy's script is brilliant: Miller-esque in its seemingly banal conversations and relative lack of action, but it is this that allows for well-rounded and believable characters'

* A Younger Theatre *

'One of the most beautifully written, achingly honest, and devastating insights into the life of a person growing up in a world that refuses to understand who that person truly is. Full of hope, raucous ribaldry, and sweet, tender moments of connection... Absolutely unmissable.

* Live Theatre UK *

'Dangerous, seamlessly crafted, this is a beautiful work and a hopeful antidote to the climate of fear in which we live'

* NSW Premier's Literary Award citation *

'Bitter and sweet and replete with raw emotion... entertaining and forceful'

* Sydney Morning Herald *


Awards
Winner of Best Play, New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards 2006.



Book Information
ISBN 9781848425859
Author Tommy Murphy
Format Paperback
Page Count 96
Imprint Nick Hern Books
Publisher Nick Hern Books