Bechamel Test - Evening Reads
BROWN’S MART’S SCRIPT-IN-HAND play reading series is back this month with a brand-new work by local playwright Danielle Aquilina.
By Cj Fraser-Bell
Danielle might be a familiar face to OTL readers, having performed and hosted many events over the last few years. She’s also a comedian and published writer, and last year completed Brown’s Marts Fresh Ink Playwriting program.
Her new play, Bechamel Test, was penned at a writers retreat in Katherine as a response to wanting to create more roles for young women on stage. It’s a funny, candid and revealing take on young women and the internal and external pressures they face in a rapidly shifting world. The teenagers of today have been online their whole lives – how does that change the experience of being a 14-year-old girl? Wasn’t it hard enough already?
“I think it’s important that we see the hard, uncomfortable and sometimes challenging aspects of modern life on stage. And the stage is a great tool for big questions to be asked,” she says.
“Relatability is probably the adjective I would use [to describe the play]. Every time I read the dialogue between these four girls, I’m thrown back to my chubby 14-year-old self and all I want to do is hug her.
“I want audiences to be able to relate to each of the characters because they all embody some integral part of each of us, whether we want to admit it or not.”
Bechamel Test is presented as a performed reading, meaning audiences get to immerse themselves in the words and performances, stripped back – just actors and scripts. One audience member from a previous Evening Reads performance remarked, “It’s electric. The minute the reading stopped the audience collectively exhaled before the applause. I didn’t even realise I’d been holding my breath.”
Bechamel Test
WHEN THU 9 SEP | 7.30PM
AT BROWN’S MART THEATRE
COST $15
INFO brownsmart.com.au
