Name: AN ORDINARY PERSON
SKU: ASC-1533
Price: 5.40 AUD
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AN ORDINARY PERSON

$5.40 – $15.00

An Ordinary Person is about the destructive nature of victimhood. At 35 years old, Louise has gained sufficient spiritual strength to find and confront her birth parents, Aggie and Topher. She wants to hold them to account for what she considers to be her tortured life. In another part of the city, 25 year old Nathan senses his long-time girlfriend, Fiona, is planning to leave. Prompted by the threat of loneliness, Nathan puts down the bong and, spurred on by a relieved Fiona, begins to turn his dream of becoming a landscape gardener into a reality.

Louise’s arrival fractures Aggie and Topher’s tight little existence and sets Topher on a deadly collision course with Nathan. The meeting between these two men, one carrying the burdens of unresolved trauma, the other with a sexuality that can no longer be suppressed, ends in violence and death. Who is the real victim? Who will justice serve? Could an ordinary person, in Nathan’s position, lose self-control and form the intent to kill? An Ordinary Person invites its audience to become a social juror and find their own answers to these difficult questions.

Form/Style: naturalist dramatic comedy
Length in minutes: 105
Cast: 6 total
Roles: 3 female identifying, 3 male identifying
Themes: lgbtqia+
Cast age groups: 18+
Audience age: adult
Publisher: Australian Script Centre

MONOLOGUES
GALLERY
LINKS & DOWNLOADS
PRODUCTION HISTORY

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Fiona

Female | 20s | under 3 minutes
Starts on page 3

EXTRACT: I only smoke on Friday nights, after work drinks and all that. Stupid I know, but it's an excuse to break away from work talk. See that table? The one with the wanker wearing faux glasses. No, not that one, the next one, with the big fat guy at the end. I shouldn't say that. He's nice, but he's going on and on about the superiority of Android over IOS. Look at poor Hannah, she's got no excuse to leave.

Adult language

Fiona

Female | 20s | under 3 minutes
Starts on page 10

EXTRACT: Ko-nee-chee-wa. No? You're not Japanese. I only did Japanese at school. What a waste, I should've done Mandarin. China's where it's all at. Yay China. Yes. You smoke too? I only smoke on special occasions. You're not allowed to smoke down in the caves, so you better fill up now. Life's full of surprises, isn't it? Last night I'm at Friday night drinks, dreading the weekend and then Nathan drags me down here. The Jenolan Caves.

Aggie

Female | 50s | under 3 minutes
Starts on page 52

EXTRACT: The victims of crime support group. Room 106. Ten empty chairs in a circle. The grimmest people I have ever seen gather around the coffee urn and the Arnott's Assorted Biscuits. A woman approaches, her hair pulled back so tightly her hair-line is in the middle of her bird-like head. "I'm Francis", she says. "Who did you lose?" I'm Aggie and I. "My brother was murdered and the murdering scum-bag got out of jail".

REVIEW: AN ORDINARY PERSON

PAUL NOLAN, SYDNEY ARTS GUIDE, 25 OCTOBER 2013

"This world premiere serves up a mighty tranche de vie which is colourful yet concise. This hectic relationships drama is also easily identifiable as being set in Sydney. Robert Allanâ€™s work explores the ramifications of wrongly healed damage in our lives and the chain reactions it will start."

REVIEW: AN ORDINARY PERSON

LISA OMAGARI, BRAG MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 2013

"Robert Allanâ€™s new play is funny, confronting and distinctly Australian. An Ordinary Person explores the destructive and multiplicitous nature of victimhood in everyday lives."

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