Shop

A THING CALLED SNAKE

$5.40$15.00

Within the darkest corners of the seedy urban underworld, three characters struggle to survive against the mounting odds. With addiction and the need for love raising the stakes by the moment, the brutal world of the marginalised is exposed, and a desperate game of love and lust is played out.

Him and Her try to hold on to what they have, as the dangerous transvestite Snake craftily slides into their desperate world, where day-to-day life often gets lost in the battle to just ... be.

''A moral script devoid of moralising... House gives this well-worn plot some original twists that lift it above the ordinary. His language ranges from the scatological to flights of poetry, ending with ... a kind of redemption through love." - Real Time

"Perhaps the grittiest work by Adelaide's much awarded playwright Stephen House, A Thing Called Snake continues a long exploration of life and longing on the margins of society: the "street class" to coin House's own phrase." - The Advertiser

  • black comedy/psychodrama
  • 70
  • 3 total
  • 1 female identifying, 2 male identifying
  • adolescence
  • 16 to 18, 18+
  • young adult, adult
  • Australian Script Centre


  • MONOLOGUES
  • PRODUCTION HISTORY

You can preview the full online text with a Membership

Eve

Female | Unspecified | 3 to 5 minutes
Starts on page 44

EXTRACT: So I go to the park of my mother. I go and go, and breathe deep as I walk past the corner, past my dying friend, the black whore; past the old man who owns a thousand rooms, calling out to me to taste some of the good stuff he's trying to unload. I go and go past them, past the lane and the men slowing and calling from their cars. Past the movie star and the crowd surrounding him; past the life that is a life no more.

Adult themes, Adult language

Him

Male | Unspecified | under 3 minutes
Starts on page 4

EXTRACT: So out there on the street, just before, my mate ... that I've been hanging out with forever, he says to me ... I did it on a crucifix. What? What do you mean a ... crucifix? Last night, and the night before, what I did, what I'll probably be doing tonight too. CHURCH BELLS CHIME Wow! A crucifix! Fucking wow, I say. Man! Am I blown away by your creativity, your ingenuity, your amazing fucking crazy desperation. Yeah wow!

Adult themes

Snake

Gender Unspecified | Unspecified | 3 to 5 minutes
Starts on page 28

EXTRACT: Look at you now Jesus. Really! You're blight to the holy name. You have a reputation to uphold. Sitting on the filthy floor, sweating and shaking and screaming out for juice in your veins! Is that all you famous whores and junkies ever think of? A crowd of desperate losers hover round him. Pretend artists, impotent office workers, scout leaders, more clergy than you could poke a cock at, anorexic models, bitching fags with faded amphetamine looks, piss hag divorcees with way too much lip stick on, who all cry at night; all rolling up to Jesus for something more.

Adult themes, Adult language

Search for details of past productions at AusStage.edu.au

AusStage provides an accessible research facility for investigating live performance in Australia.


Search by play title and/or playwright name
Results will open in a new window

PLEASE NOTE: You will be directed to AusStage.edu.au for search results; Australian Plays Transform is not responsible for their completeness. Refer to our terms of use.

$15.00
$5.40
SKU: ASC-1018 Category:

We acknowledge that we live and create on unceded lands. We pay our respects to the First Peoples of Australia, and to their elders past, present and future.

© Australian Plays Transform 2024