HUMAN ACTIVITY THE SCRIPT

FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT … Human Activity is about a young woman who needs to fix her present, an old couple who need to fix their past, and a city that needs to fix its future.

We’re in Sydney, in the narrow city laneway of Angel Place, just before dawn on 16 December 2014.

It’s the day after the Lindt Cafe siege and the city is filling with people in shock and grief. Birds swirl above and flowers proliferate at their feet.

As a group of characters travel through this altered space, each connected to a violent trauma in their own lives, they connect in unexpected but essential ways. 

This is a story that places the individual at the locus of world events to examine the ripple effects of acts of terrorism - political and domestic.  

The play has had a very long gestation. Suzanne and I first started talking about ideas in 2014 - before the events at the Lindt Cafe even happened!

It was a baby play then that hadn’t yet found it’s feet. But like a mature wine or a stinky cheese, some things take longer than others. Life happened. Then Covid happened. But we’re here now.  

I’m grateful to Suzanne and John for their continued investment in the work and these characters who’ve been hanging around so long now they’re beginning to feel like family members who just won’t take the hint. I’m thrilled to see it finally come to the stage.

KATIE POLLOCK