It's the show that shocks and awes and it opens in Brisbane next week!
6 microphones. 4 knockout actors. Post-pandemic beatz. Heaps of fruit. This slippery subversive take on your classic radio play shocks and awes in the funniest ways possible. 44 Sex Acts in One Week is an apocalyptic rom-com from the razor-sharp pen of playwright provocateur David Finnigan (Kill Climate Deniers) opening at Brisbane Powerhouse from May 16 to 25 as part of the 2024 Brisbane Comedy Festival.
This critically-acclaimed, smash hit of the Sydney Festival FINALLY arrives in Brisbane this May. And there's more – it's been nominated for The Patrick White, The Theatre Uncut and Griffin Playwriting Awards, and long-listed for the Soho Theatre Verity Bargate Award (UK), so there 🦚 🤗 BOOK HERE
The show stars Rebecca Massey, considered one of Australia's most versatile and accomplished film, television and theatre actresses - think award-winning productions like Utopia (Seasons 2 – 5 as Beverley from HR, one of the most deliciously hated characters on tv!), Metro Sexual (Seasons 1 & 2), Deep Water, Total Control, Upright, The Principal, Chandon Pictures (Seasons 1 & 2) and Lowdown (Seasons 1 & 2). Rebecca was most recently seen in Erotic Stories, While The Men Are Away, The Messenger and Barons. She's a stage star, and her work in film includes Blaze, Bad Girl, Accidents Happen, The Black Balloon amongst others.
She's also one of the peeps behind this award-winning show!
Because everyone loves a list, here's ours on WHY you need to see this show!
1. It stars extra funny people! Four of Australia's finest comic actors, Amber McMahon, Aaron Tsindos, Nancy Dennis and Rebecca Massey. Seriously funny folk at the top of their game, going down on fruit (bios below. Of the people, not the fruit).
2. It's by David Finnigan. We are talking an audaciously fabulous script which is a loving homage to classic rom-coms, set during the very final days of late-stage capitalism – a moment when intergenerational feminism and the climate crisis collide in unexpected ways to bring about a sweaty, hilarious, surprisingly heartfelt apocalypse.
3. For the Staging and Sonic Inventiveness: just close your eyes (if you must), have your ears felt up by foley effects, and wonder what it might be to peg someone in a camping supplies store at 10am on a Wednesday.
4. It supports the Eat Local movement and our local Queensland fruit growers 🙏🏽 We all know how important it is for mother earth to lower our food miles, this show exemplifies the movement like no other (😜) AND it celebrates new ways to use fruit, like how to make a watermelon sound like sex!!
5. It's a WILD experience! It's Fruity. Celebratory. Audacious. Delicious. SEXY. Full stop.
So what's it about then (apart from the obvious 🍌)? Girl meets boy. Girl hates boy. Girl f**s boy 44 times. World collapses. Simple? Watch four hilarious actors go down on their microphones, mangos and melons in this slippery and subversive take on a classic radio play. 44 Sex Acts is a response to humanity's decision to go harder, faster, faster, FASTER! towards the end of the world as we know it. PS * there's no nudity, only simulated fruit sex 🍉
Who's behind (🙈) this? That would be Club House Productions. Dedicated to seriously good times in the theatre, Club House Productions is a theatrical brains trust – a collective of crafty and exceptionally naughty theatre artists and friends, led by award-winning actor, Rebecca Massey (Beverely from HR in ABC's Utopia ring a bell?).
The Longer Version 🍆
Celina is a journalist stuck writing clickbait for a lifestyle blog. It falls to her to road test a new book, The 44 Sex Acts that Will Change your Life. All she has to do is experience 44 different kinds of sex, across the full spectrum of kink by Friday.
Problem is: she needs a partner. And the only person available is her nemesis, brooding animal activist/office mail boy Alab Delusa. Sworn enemies, they now have one week to explore the endlessly undulating terrain of sex, from BDSM to role-play, from polyamory to exhibitionism. And with no time to recover. Can all this extra friction between them strike real sparks?
From the razor sharp quill of David Finnigan comes a pressure cooker sexcom-come-radio-play about what drives humanity to go all the way toward the end of civilisation as we know it. Close your eyes (if you must), have your ears felt up by foley effects, and wonder what it might be to peg someone in a camping supplies store at 10am on a Wednesday. And also, climate change.
BEWARE: "The tinsel backdrop, smushed rockmelon is all a front for a deceptively clever script. This play comes from the razor-sharp pen of David Finnigan ⭐⭐⭐⭐" TIME OUT
The Cast 💐
Aaron Tsindos is a WAAPA graduate with a list of incredible credits from 'The Tempest', 'No Pay? No Way!', 'Muriel's Wedding', 'Rosancrantz and Guildenstern are Dead', 'The White Guard' and 'Cyrano De Bergerac' for Sydney Theatre Company to 'Shakespeare in Love' for Melbourne Theatre Company, 'Dubbo Championship Wrestling', 'Merrily We Roll Along', Spamalot', 'Meet me in St Louis', 'Big Fish' and 'The Goodbye Girl' at the Hayes and the list goes on. A talented comic, singer and writer, Aaron has created many successful works and his production company 'General Legends' co-run the 'Bang Bang Rodeo Improv Show' at the Old Fitz.
Amber McMahon is a deadest superstar - Bananaland for Brisbane and Sydney Festival; Master and Magarita, Stop Girl Dance Nation, Bliss, Atlantis, Twelfth Night, Angels in America, and The Power of Yes for Belvoir; Top Coat, Rules for Living, Banging Denmark, Accidental Death of an Anarchist and The Popular Mechanicals for Sydney Theatre Company; North by Northwest for Kay & McLean Productions and Optimism and Picnic at Hanging Rock for Malthouse, which included two seasons at Royal Lyceum Edinburgh and Barbican London. She's received two Helpmann Awards for Best Female in a Supporting Role one for Girl Asleep for Belvoir/Windmill and School Dance for Windmill
Nancy Denis began her career as a child performer in Annie the Musical. Her film and TV roles include Cleverman (ABC), 600 Bottles of Wine (Netflix) and Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby. She's worked with Sydney Theatre Company and is currently rehearsing and performing in Zombies- The Musical at Hayes Theatre.
Rebecca Massey is considered one of Australia's most versatile and accomplished film, television and theatre actresses - think award-winning productions like Utopia (Seasons 2 – 5 as Beverley from HR, one of the most deliciously hated characters on tv!), Metro Sexual (Seasons 1 & 2), Deep Water, Total Control, Upright, The Principal, Chandon Pictures (Seasons 1 & 2) and Lowdown (Seasons 1 & 2). Rebecca was most recently seen in Erotic Stories, While The Men Are Away, The Messenger and Barons. She's a stage star, and her work in film includes Blaze, Bad Girl, Accidents Happen, The Black Balloon amongst others.
She's also one of the peeps behind this award-winning show!
44 SEX ACTS IN ONE WEEK
16 May to 25 May 2024
Brisbane Powerhouse, Underground Theatre
Writer David Finnigan
Producer Dans Maree Sheehan, Club House Productions
Director Sheridan Harbridge
Composer/Music Director Steve Toulmin
Lighting and Set Designer Trent Suidgeest
Sound Technician Keelan Ellis
PERFORMANCE DATES & TIMES
THU 16 MAY 2024 8:30PM
FRI 17 MAY 2024 8:30PM
SAT 18 MAY 2024 3:00PM and 8:30PM
FRI 24 MAY 2024 8:30PM
SAT 25 MAY 2024 3:00PM and 8.30PM
TICKETS
Adult $49* Concession $44* GROUP 6+ $44*
BOOK HERE
