Summer Shadows

Production still for "Summer Shadows". L-R: Georgina Banks as Ali, Alan Fletcher as Davie, Caroline Gillmer as Mer. Photographer: David B. Simmonds

Summer Shadows

By Richard Beynon

16 September 1986 – 04 October 1986 National Theatre

Playbox Theatre Company, Spoleto Melbourne Festival of the Arts,

New Writing Theatre

The poignant story of a working-class family living in Prahran, an inner suburb of Melbourne, in the 1920s: Dadda and Mer Kirkwood; the teenage Ali, in love with a shell-shocked soldier; the beautiful Beattie, whose appetite for life struggles against ill-health; and the sons who, each in their own way, seek solutions to the restraints of poverty.

In his first play since 1957's "The Shifting Heart", Richard Benyon draws heavily on family reminiscences of young love and the impact of World War One on domestic life in Melbourne.

Production still for "Summer Shadows". L-R: , David Bradshaw as Dadda, Caroline Gillmer as Mer. Photographer: David B. Simmonds
Production still for "Summer Shadows". L-R: ?, Caroline Gillmer as Mer, Regina Gaigalas as Beattie. Photographer: David B. Simmonds
Production still for "Summer Shadows". L-R: Georgina Banks as Ali, Alan Fletcher as Davie. Photographer: David B. Simmonds
Production still for "Summer Shadows". Caroline Gillmer as Mer. Photographer: David B. Simmonds
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Production still for "Summer Shadows". L-R: , David Bradshaw as Dadda, Caroline Gillmer as Mer. Photographer: David B. Simmonds

Production still for "Summer Shadows". L-R: ?, Caroline Gillmer as Mer, Regina Gaigalas as Beattie. Photographer: David B. Simmonds

Production still for "Summer Shadows". L-R: Georgina Banks as Ali, Alan Fletcher as Davie. Photographer: David B. Simmonds

Production still for "Summer Shadows". Caroline Gillmer as Mer. Photographer: David B. Simmonds

Creatives

Peter Oyston

Peter Oyston

Director

John Beckett

John Beckett

Lighting Designer

Richard Beynon

Playwright

Tracy Watt

Designer

Yvonne Hockey

Production Manager

Ross Murray

Stage Manager

Jill Smith

Jill Smith

General Manager