It’s the hoariest creative advice known to writing workshops the world over: write what you know. For actor and theatre-maker Ash Flanders of acclaimed theatre duo Sisters Grimm, this meant diving deeply into some of his most painful recent memories and moulding them into a comedy of manners. This is Living is the result, and if the final package isn’t entirely cohesive, it’s hard to argue the work doesn’t come from a place of truth.
Couple Hugh (Marcus McKenzie) and Will (Wil King) have organised a New Year’s Eve weekend getaway in Hepburn with three of their older, but hardly wiser, girlfriends. The women have known each other far longer still, which has given them more than enough time to build a sediment of resentments and irritation over a solid bedrock of secrets and lies.
There is Alex (Belinda McClory), a brittle TV presenter accustomed to throwing insults but not so happy receiving them; Jo (Maria Theodorakis), a university teacher who spends far too much of her downtime attending to the needs of her students; and Sharleen (Michelle Perera), a recently divorced mother who’s only there because her therapist encouraged her to attend.
