Long deemed too provocative to stage, a new work by multi-award-winning “trans-queen” playwright Glace Chase will finally see its world premiere, with Flinders Drama Centre to present Gull – or – The Most Lamentable Comedie Called Love at this year’s Adelaide Fringe.
The production, a tongue-in-cheek Restoration romp of bastardised history, will be presented at the Holden Street Theatres from March 1-9.
With Chase’s trademark brilliant wit and outrageous daring, Gull updates Shakespeare’s cross-gendered comedies with a provocative twist for today’s feminist and queer sensibilities.
Originally commissioned by Bell Shakespeare Company, the play sat unproduced for ten years after being seen as too outrageous to stage.
Taking place at the outbreak of the plague in 1665, the story follows a “banned from the stage” breeches girl and boy-player who gate crash the mansion of a leading conservative and his vapid wife in a desperate bid to escape the city. But a libertine and pantomime dame have the same idea, and they’ll all have to battle it out in this epic night from hell.
The production is the centrepiece of a new initiative of Flinders Drama Centre, which sees Bachelor of Performance (Honours) students creating new and experimental works and presenting an annual season in a public venue of the Adelaide Fringe.
“Flinders Drama Centre is the only drama school in the country that trains actors not just to interpret stage and screen scripts but to create such works themselves,” says Flinders University’s Drama Centre Manager Dr Christopher Hurrell, who is also directing Gull.
“Participating in the development and performance of new works by established artists is a crucial element in this training and central to our unique Honours program.”
As a playwright, Glace Chase has won two Griffin Awards and the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award. She explosively brought trans love to the Australian mainstage in 2020/21 with her critically acclaimed play Triple X at Sydney Theatre Company and Queensland Theatre Company, starring Glace herself and declared ‘a knockout’ by the Sydney Morning Herald.
GULL – or – the Most Lamentable Comedie Called Love previews from March 1, and premieres on March 4, in The Arch at Holden Street Theatres.
Tickets and more information: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/gull-or-the-most-lamentable-comedie-called-love-af2025
