Sunday Arts Magazine

28 Feb 2022

Stay Woke

Uncategorized

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Written by Aran Thangaratnam
Directed by Bridget Balodis
A new play about two brothers, Niv and
Sai, heading to the mountains for a party
weekend to bury the hatchet on a lifelong
rivalry.
Big brother Niv has gone vegan. He’s madly
in love, he’s starting his own business, and
seems to have finally found himself after years
as the black sheep of the family. In an attempt
to reconcile their differences, Niv invites
golden child Sai and his new girlfriend Kate on
a ski trip where they can put the past aside for
the sake of family.
But when party banter turns political, Kate
stumbles into a minefield, and finds herself the
focal point of an all-out war.
Stay Woke will be the first play performed in
The Malthouse’s Beckett Theatre in over two
years, following the cancellations of Season
2020 and the hugely successful season of
Because The Night (2021) that took over the

entirety of The Malthouse building.
Said Malthouse Theatre Artist in Residence
and Stay Woke Director Bridget Balodis:
‘Stay Woke is such an exciting play to return
to the Beckett with; it’s so contemporary in
its references and so fearless in its desire to
tackle issues like white fragility, weaponised
wokeness, and cultural appropriation.
In rehearsals I keep thinking about comedians
like Alok Vaid-Menon and Hannah Gadsby—
it’s a knife’s edge comedy, and even though
the play has a big heart, no one is safe from
scrutiny.’
Writer Aran Thangaratnam was a participant
of Malthouse Theatre’s Malcolm Robertson
Writers Program in 2020, which commissions
two early career playwrights each year to
write a full-length play, and enabled him to
develop Stay Woke.