Sunday Arts Magazine

30 Jan 2023

MILF and Mistress

Arts, Arts Festival, Performing Arts, Sunday Arts Magazine

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A dynamic and darkly comic premiere season,

The MILF and Mistress is a rare and compelling theatrical event that centres on the older lesbian experience. Hitting the stage at Theatre Works’ Explosives

Factory in January 2023, it angles a bright spotlight on how Saturday soccer, school runs, and flannelette pyjamas
all work to keep us in a comfortable domestic slumber… until a well-placed riding crop wakes us up.
The MILF and Mistress tells the tale of Ali Henderson. An intelligent, middle-aged woman who outwardly seems
to be living the lesbian dream. But three pets, two sons, one wife and a shiny quarter acre block in suburbia make
for one very frustrated MILF. She apparently “has it all”… but is it enough? Does happily ever after simply expire?
A new Australian work by multi-award winning playwright and actor Jane Montgomery Griffiths, The MILF and
Mistress will be realised on the stage by Theatre Works Executive Director, and first time theatre director, Dianne
Toulson. Performed by renowned actor and Green Room Award Winner Jennifer Vuletic, The MILF and Mistress
is an important comment on a group within the GLBTIQA+ community whose experiences are often sidelined and
dismissed.
“We all know about the invisibility of middle-age for women”, explains writer Jane Montgomery Griffith, “so
much of that, though, is tied up with heterosexuality and women no longer being deemed attractive. There’s very
little theatrical work out there exploring and validating middle-aged lesbians and their sexuality. Concurrently,
there’s also growing interest in debunking the taboo of women hiring sex workers, what with the success of Good
luck, Leo Grande, so I suppose this project is a bit within that zeitgeist.