Babyteeth

Presented by State Theatre Company of South Australia
By Rita Kalnejais

From the vivid and disarmingly idiosyncratic imagination of young Australian playwright Rita Kalnejais emerges a bittersweet story of a family rearranging itself to deal with the terminal illness of their teenage daughter Milla.

A group of more or less ordinary people go about their lives: Anna makes toast, Henry dresses for work, Milla catches the train to school, Moses deals drugs. But hovering above this unholy parade of life is the sobering fact that Milla will die before her 15th birthday. How do they continue to manage the mundane aspects of life—getting to work on time, helping the neighbour change a light bulb, returning a violin bow—when their world is shattering?

Kalnejais looks at the apparently humdrum world around us and sees something radically alive. Dogs, Paganini, figs, an eight-year-old Vietnamese violin prodigy, morphine, clear skies and a Latvian immigrant are amongst the acutely observed ingredients which make up this wonderful, moving, life-affirming and funny play.

Hailed in its 2012 Sydney season at Belvoir as one of the most exciting recent mainstage debuts, Babyteeth will be given a new production for us by Chris Drummond (When the Rain Stops Falling, Land and Sea) who brings his trademark theatrical invention and empathetic storytelling to the work. The wonderful young Adelaide actress Danielle Catanzariti (Pinocchio, Hey, Hey, It’s Esther Blueburger) plays the role of Milla.

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