Life is never all gloom and doom, but it's never all joy either.
So says Newcastle playwright Daniel Scott, who's new play Eden will open at Newcastle Theatre Company on Wednesday.
"There are moments of hilarity and sadness for all of us and I wanted my play to reflect that," Daniel said.
"It's possibly hard to believe that a play about such a serious subject could be funny and entertaining as well as poignant, but that is what I hope we have achieved with Eden."
The play is set in a lighthouse keeper's cottage near Eden on the far South Coast.
He said the production of Eden was like "returning to a first love".
"In my case that's playwriting, after 25 years wandering the world as a travel writer," he said.
He has written for outlets like The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age Traveller.
"As a writer, I love the collaborative process that is theatre, the need to give up a creation in order to see it hopefully flourish in the hands of others.
"I feel blessed to have been working with a director of profound experience like Janet Nelson and with such a talented group of cast and crew."
What started with research into recovered memory of trauma and its reliability, has become more focused on the nature of recovery as Daniel processed his childhood.
The two central female roles of Carla (Denni Mannile) and her best friend Ginnie (Sandy Aldred) are "especially demanding emotionally" and "both actors are wonderful in the parts".
"In the past seven years I have been on a journey similar to Carla's."
He said the play sounds intense, but "it was always my intention to make my play funny and entertaining".
Daniel believes that "communication and empathy are our gifts as humans".
"If I have a role as a writer, it is to help people open up to each other," he said.
Eden is about Carla, a woman in her early 40s coming to terms with recovered memories of childhood trauma.
"It's about how she comes to recognise that trauma and what she does about it. It's also about memory and the past and how we all have different versions of it - sometimes of exactly the same event.
"It is never straightforward for an adult recovering deeply buried memories - particularly if there has been secrecy around them involving others - and it is easy for them and for those close to them to doubt the truth of what they are uncovering.
"But our bodies tend to carry such memories on a cellular level and that can lead to all sorts of adult ill-health - physical, emotional and mental."
Daniel said writing his own story would have been "too painful and gruelling for me and the audience".
"So I have really tried to make this accessible and as dramatically compelling as possible."
He said the theatre can bring light to difficult subjects.
"I believe the theatre should be the starting point for public discourse and that openness around these subjects is essential for a healthy society."
The play will be performed on Wednesday and Friday at 8pm and Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, along with more performances the following week. Herald readers can get two tickets for the price of one by calling Newcastle Theatre Company on 4952 4958 and quoting 'Herald Eden offer".
