Bonds that bind

A CONFRONTING play full of murder, incest, sorrow and hatred will take centre stage next month at the Bakery @1812 theatre in Upper Fentree Gully.
Swamp Fox Productions will present the play, The Hour Before My Brother Dies, by Australian playwright Daniel Keene.
Keene’s multi-award winning plays have been acclaimed throughout Australia, the United States, France and Poland.
Since the 1990s he has established himself as one of Europe’s most notable contemporary playwrights.
Hills people will now get the chance to see one of Keane’s renowned plays which is directed by Vicki Smith and features Ron Kofler and Fiona Bechtold.
The play is set in 1960 in a cell of the Pentridge Prison and centred on inmate, Martin, and his sister.
Sally (Bechtold) visits her brother Martin (Kofler) in prison the night before he is to be executed for murder.
During the visit the two are quickly drawn back in time to memories of the past.
This play takes a confronting look at the dangerous incestuous love of a brother and sister, the sorrow of losing a mother and the hatred of a father.
The audience will be drawn in to the pair’s memories of a summer’s night several years earlier on New Year’s Eve, when Martin rebuffed Sally’s attempts at seduction.
It then follows the scorned Sally as she runs to tell their father that the pair had been lovers. As the pair awaits Martin’s execution they caress, wrestle, laugh at shared jokes and are confronted with their past and are forced to look at the love/hate nature of their incestuous bond.
This confronting yet raw look at a bond between brother and sister can be seen at the Bakery@1812 Theatre, Rose Street, Upper Ferntree Gully.
The play will open on April 30 and will run until 10 May.
Tickets cost $20 for adults and $17 for concession cardholders. Bookings are now open and can be made by calling 9735 2802.