It is always a delight to have a world premiere of a homegrown production in the Sydney Festival. Counting and Cracking is written by S. Shakthidharan and coproduced by Belvoir Theatre Company and Co-Curious.
This play tells a story of people and place and is set in both Shakthidharan’s ancestral home of Sri Lanka and his birthplace of Australia.  The story focuses on a family divided by place and plays out between 1957 through to 2004.
Language was one of the divisive concerns in Ceylon during the 1950s. The politicians on stage argue the question of whether to retain English as the one unifying language, while allowing all other languages in the country to flourish or, give primacy to Sinhala and thereby marginalise other languages including Tamil.
The play in production addresses this issue by ensuring that the audience is always included. The actors often perform using different languages but English interpreters, (the offstage actors) translate seamlessly, sitting or standing to the side of the stage. The onstage actors often engage with the interpreters in a manner that enhances the play rather than slowing or detracting from it.
Sydney Town Hall as a venue was a masterstroke enabling the audience to be part of the play.  Dale Ferguson took full advantage of the vaulted ceiling, to design a splendid set that included the audience. We were surrounded by the walls of the family home in Colombo and seated on cushioned tiered ply benches around the stage.
The set changed in name only as street signage indicated simply the place and year. The constant and only significant feature on the stage were big iron gates, symbolic in their presence and used to great effect towards the end of the play as the gates of the Villawood Detention Centre.
This play speaks of the diverse Australian population, the trauma of displacement and the divisive nature of difference but ultimately delivers an optimistic message of unity and hope.
The sixteen actors from diverse cultural backgrounds were uniformly top rate. They brought to their performances warmth, intensity and humour. A great piece of ensemble work and brilliantly directed by Eamon Flack. This production was superb in all respects doing justice to this new excellent Australian play.
Liz O’Toole, Theatre Now
Counting and Cracking
S. Shakthidharan
11 Jan – 2 Feb 2019
Tue – Sat 7pm (except Wed 18th)
Thur, Sat & Sun 1pm (except 12th & 13th Jan)
Mon 14th 7pm
Venue: Belvoir Upstairs
Theatre Company: Belvoir St Theatre Company
Duration: N/A
On the banks of the Georges River, Radha and her son Siddhartha release the ashes of Radha’s mother – their final connection to the past, to Sri Lanka and its struggles. Now they are free to embrace their lives in Australia. Then a phone call from Colombo brings the past spinning back to life, and we are plunged into an epic story of love and political strife, of home and exile, of parents and children
Counting and Cracking is a big new play about Australia like none we’ve seen before. This is life on a large canvas, so we are leaving Belvoir St and building a Sri Lankan town hall inside Sydney Town Hall. Sixteen actors play four generations of a family, from Colombo to Pendle Hill, in a story about Australia as a land of refuge, about Sri Lanka’s efforts to remain united, about reconciliation within families, across countries, across generations.
We’ve done some big shows before – Cloudstreet, Angels in America. This is big too, but in a different way: it’s a new kind of Australian story. What makes it magnificent is its grand theatrical sweep, and its vision – deeply moving, compelling – necessary, of why we must never flag in the pursuit of an open society.
Co-produced with Co-Curious
Counting and Cracking has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Major Festivals initiative, managed by the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, in association with the Confederation of Australian International Arts Festivals Inc., Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival.
Ticket Prices
$39 – $94
