The Damage is Done is a 60-minute solo theatre work by Deus Ex Femina about queerness, sisterhood and family secrets in an Italian-Australian home, featuring explicit language and content warnings for sexual assault, emotional abuse, mental health issues and homophobia; recommended for ages 15 and over. When Isadora reveals her own truth after a family secret surfaces, a reckoning unfolds between the stories she's been holding and the stories others have kept hidden, exploring loyalty, shame and what love can rebuild.
★★★★★ The List
★★★★★ A Thousand Words
★★★★★ The Barefoot Review
When a devastating secret about her sister shatters the family equilibrium, Isadora seizes the moment to tell her own truth, certain nothing could be worse. She's wrong.
The Damage is Done is a taut, high-voltage solo about queerness, sisterhood and the fault lines running through an Italian-Australian home. Fiercely intimate and darkly funny, it lays bare loyalty, shame and love; what survives, how we transform, and what love lasts once The Damage is Done.
In a family where silence is its own language, Isadora has been waiting for the right moment. She thought she'd found it. What follows is a reckoning - when the story you've been holding collides with the stories others have been keeping, and love is not quite enough to hold the shape of what remains.
Achingly honest, darkly comic, and unmistakably queer: a show about the damage families do in the name of love, and what, if anything, can be rebuilt.
Event Details
GENRE: Theatre & Live Performance
DURATION: 60 mins
AGE RATING: Ages 15 +
EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
CONTENT WARNING/S: Sexual Assault or Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Mental Health, Homophobia
SEATED OR STANDING: Seated
About the presenter: Deus Ex Femina
Deus Ex Femina is an award-winning South Australian independent theatre company, led by writer and performer Katherine Sortini. Making original, actor-centred work with bite, the company puts lived experience, rigorous craft and genuine representation at the centre of everything it does.
Their debut, All The Things I Couldn't Say, sold out and took home the Adelaide Festival Centre InSpace Award (2022). Dirty Energy followed with a sold-out Fringe season, ★★★★★ reviews, and the Holden Street Theatres Award (2024).
In 2025–26, the company is in residence at Goodwood Theatre & Studios as part of the Fortune Favours the Bold program, with projects also selected for The Mill Theatre Residency and State Theatre Company SA's Stateside Season.
The Damage is Done is their latest work.
Website: https://www.deusexfemina.com/
