Controlled Crying

Synopsis:

Anyone who has ever raised a family knows only too well the unbearable angst that accompanies the sound of a babe crying in the night.

The more prolonged the crying, the greater the angst.

And yet, as parents, though we might move heaven and earth in order to spare our children the slightest sorrow, it is as much our role to allow them to learn how to cry as it is to protect them from the very troubles that provoke their tears.

That is the impossible balancing act of parenthood.  An act carried out, as often as not, in the midst of the intimate darkness of the marital bed, in the dead of night.

More than any other place on earth, be it a battlefield, a bar-room or the back stairs, the marital bed is where the true business of life is transacted – in furtive, whispered darkness, from conception through to death.

And it is within this most secret of places, through a series of deft scenes spanning over a quarter of a century, that the drama of Controlled Crying is played out.

Here, amidst the rumpled, chaotic counterpane of life, where Libby and Oscar play out the odyssey that is the raising of Millie.

And an odyssey it truly is, with all the angst, the humour, the pettiness and the profundity of life itself.

Character Breakdown:

LIBBY  35 through to 62
OSCAR  37 through to 64

Running-time:  85 minutes

Production History:

World Premiere:  Chapel Off Chapel.  Shy Tiger Productions.  2006.
Seymour Centre, Sydney. 2007.
Regional tour NSW, VIC 2007.
The Actors’ Folio, Sth Australia.  2012.

Publication:  Australian Playscripts.  2009.

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