AMY’S TATTOO by Alison Mann
Amy's Tattoo is a tale of attraction, love, friendship and family.
It challenges social taboos, questions the paradox of nature and nurture and is unafraid of the dark spaces.
Amy is a talented local tattoo artist, who’s world is changed by the entrance of John, a teenage champion swimmer conceived using one of her eggs donated anonymously 20 years ago.
Alison Mann is a Tasmanian, a rising international playwriting talent and recently, Blue Cow Theatre’s Writer in Residence. Alison has worked extensively with dramaturg Peter Matheson as part of Blue Cow Theatre’s script development program, The Cowshed to develop this work.
In 2016 her critically acclaimed play The Surgeon’s Hands was also produced by Blue Cow Theatre.
Creative Producer: Lucinda Toynbee Wilson
Director: Sarah Carradine
CAST: Lisa Gormley, Matt Newell, Gabrielle Adkins, Jane Longhurst
Sound Design: Heath Brown
Lighting Designer: Jason James
Stage Manager: Mel King
The Cowshed is supported by Blue Cow Theatre’s
300 Club new Tasmanian theatre patron program.
DONOR CONCEIVED AUSTRALIA - support for donor-conceived people, education on donor conception for both current and prospective parents and donors as well as the wider community, and advocacy for nationally consistent legislation.
Alison Mann top 10 in QLD PREMIER’S DRAMA AWARD for Amy’s Tattoo
“We are a bit spoiled for choice lately Hobart and Launceston, but I urge you, DO NOT MISS this short season of Blue Cow Theatre’s Amy’s Tattoo! It’s arrestingly, captivatingly special in so many ways.
I was privileged to see a preview of it last night as part of Blue Cow Cow Shed Masters playwright program and I left feeling rearranged and deeply moved, like my heart had been turned over again and again in a hot compost of ethical dilemma, human-ness, love and longing.
The cinematic writing and psychosocial curiosity of playwright Alison Doll Mann Alison D-Mann never shies away from exploring and exposing contemporary complexities that most would rather leave unturned, and so often touches on our humanity, sometimes piercingly! Her characters are truly magnetic, and as every scene builds, you feel like are uncovering insights and art you didn’t know you needed, friction, tensions and entanglements between nature and nurture that you wouldn’t confront or opt into knowingly.
What happens when we wish for what is beyond humanly possible? Are the promises of science, technology and capitalism like jinn in a bottle that we may regret rubbing down the track? Alison’s script asks these questions so explosively on such an intimate scale.
The direction by Sarah Carradine both exploits the materialities present on stage—resulting in often surprisingly entrancing poetic gesture—and allows for incredibly moving performances, exploration and transformation from the incredible talent of Lisa Gormley, Matt Newell, Gabe Adkins, and Jane Longhurst. I actually have SO MUCH to say about them all, won’t spoil it! I’ll let you find out!
All of this soaked and transported in the masterful worlds of sound designer Heath Brown and lighting designer Jason James! Also a shout out to Blue Cow Team Creative Producer Lucinda Toynbee Wilson, Cow Shed dramaturg Peter Matheson, and stage manager Melissa King being the connective tissue for some really great art!
Like I said, if you haven’t got your tickets yet, get on it! Only a few left, and you won’t be sorry you supported our local Tassie theatre ecology to do this kind of important work!”
““That was absolutely exquisite! I drove home extremely inspired to drill into my own craft 🧡 the script was magnificent, the acting divine, the presentation provocative and resounding. I don’t have enough multisyllabic words to convey my feeling, congratulations. Have a wonderful season xx””
““I was lucky enough to see this incredible production last night and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. Congratulations to the whole cast and creative team on such a moving and beautifully executed performance. .... Real, gritty theatre doesn’t get much better than this.””
Playwright: Alison Mann
Alison is a Tasmanian playwright, who was recently shortlisted for the Queensland Premiers Drama Award, Australia’s most prestigious award for playwright’s.
Alison is also the recipient of several other awards including a First Draft Award from PLAYWORKS, Sydney and a Melbourne Dramatists Emerging Playwright Award. In 2017 Alison received the Tasmanian Arts Advisory Board Chairman’s Scholarship presented by the Theatre Council of Tasmania, undertaking mentorships with performer Maude Davey and playwright Tom Holloway.
Alison has been a key participant in Blue Cow Theatre’s script development program, the Cowshed, working with dramaturg Peter Matheson. In 2016 her play The Surgeon’s Hands was produced by Blue Cow Theatre at Hobart’s Theatre Royal Backspace. Her play, She’s Not Performing was produced by the Tasmanian Theatre Company in Hobart, and La Mama in Melbourne. Alison’s The Illustrated Girl was part of DARK MOFO’s Radio Gothic, a hybrid radio play performance in 2017. Alison has also studied writing for performance at the Royal Court Theatre and Soho Theatre in London. She is currently Blue Cow Theatre’s Writer in Residence and a mentor in their Future Proof Young Writers’ Program.
Director: Sarah Carradine
Sarah Carradine is a director and writer, with works ranging from dirty underground cabaret to the stage of the Sydney Opera House. Her production of Romeo et Juliette for Opera Australia toured Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth. She wrote and directed the chamber opera The Cockatoos, commissioned by Victorian Opera, which was nominated for an Australian Writers Guild Award. Her plays Barb and Richard were recently produced in Sydney. In 2015, she was Artist in Residence at Cascade Gorge in Launceston, working on her play Still Afraid of Water, which is in development with Blue Cow Theatre. She wrote and directed Perch, which had seasons in Cambridge, at United Solo Festival Off-Broadway, and in Sydney at Belvoir St downstairs. She has worked throughout Australia, as well as in London, Edinburgh, New York, Christchurch, Portland and Boston.
Creative Producer: Lucinda Toynbee Wilson
Lucinda is returning to theatre after a successful career designing and directing events. Trained as a theatre director in Australia & USA she began onstage before finding her happy place behind the scenes as a director / producer. Lucinda has directed professionally Private Lives by Noel Coward and The Burning Bed by Faith McNulty, she wrote and directed Twas a Dark and Stormy Night. Lucinda has published a book of short stories and is working to complete her third theatre script.
Working along side Sarah is a chance for Lucinda to stretch her creative theatre muscles again.
