SHORE BREAK

SHORE BREAK by Chris Pitman

HAD A LIMITED SHOWCASE SEASON

4 - 13 May 2023
Goodwood Theatre
166a Goodwood Rd, Goodwood

Suitable for ages 15+
75 minute duration
Frequent coarse language

Is it possible for someone who has banished themselves to an island, in order to escape the torture of living in the world, to find a way back to society?

Shore Break is a story about a man  brought up in an emotionally illiterate, culturally bereft household in a far-flung suburb of a city. His life bumps through childhood, adolescence into adulthood; consumed by awkwardness, confusion, anger and an inability to connect meaningfully to relationships and community. Something is broken but cannot seem to put the pieces together.

He turns toward the ocean for connection. A place that can hold his unnamed feelings and keep his secrets.

We meet him alone in his camp in an isolated dune, sandwiched between the desert and the ocean. He’s been there for years, waiting for the perfect wave to break; because only then, for a few precious moments, can he feel alive.

Old memories overtake him and he must unravel his emotional entanglement, try to see what he has done, who he is, and how he can keep living.

Is there a chance he can find a road back to civilisation, and if by chance he is able to get there, will there be enough left of him to engage?

And is there enough forgiveness left in the world?

CAST + CREATIVES

Writer + Performer Chris Pitman
Director Chelsea Griffith
Lighting Bob Weatherly

THE ADVERTISER - Peter Burdon
With a resume bristling with major theatre credits, Chris Pitman has a solid and well-deserved reputation as one of Australia’s finest actors. To that he now adds playwright, with his excellent one-hander Shore Break. For a first go, Shore Break is exhilaratingly successful.

A man is sitting on his deck chair on the beach. He can wander down for a surf, or simply sit and “be”. He talks about life and love, his and others, but he’s no armchair philosopher, for he speaks from lived experience, and from the heart.

There’s a distant father, a good man, but remote. A no-nonsense mother, loyal, tough-loving. A childhood and adolescence that’s detached, if not isolated. He flirts with the need to be something, someone, not always in the most sensible or admirable of ways. Likewise the need to be loved by another. A lifetime later, on the beach, with himself for company, he might have just found his calling.

Shore Break is authentic and genuine. Pitman and director Chelsea Griffith have crafted a really persuasive piece. And it’s not just the words, poetically rich and beautiful though they are. It’s the silence in between, one of the most difficult things in theatre. And so successful it is, that this audience member, for one, could have done with even more.

Shore Break is great new theatre.
 

ArtsHub - Megan Koch

Read the full review here.
 

The Clothesline - by David Cronin

"The performance and script by Chris Pitman are a tour de force, and the standing ovation well-deserved after this marathon of a monologue. The direction by Chelsea Griffith is subtle and uncluttered. A compelling and quintessentially Australian theatre piece with universal appeal, this powerful play is an important addition to our understanding of ourselves and our own contribution to this world."
Read the full review.
 

STAGE WHISPERS - Lisa Lanzi
"...an exquisite work of theatre written and performed by Chris Pitman, an actor who is utterly spellbinding..."
Read the full review here.

Lia Loves
"He had us all by both the jugular and heart strings."
Read the full review here

For information about touring SHORE BREAK, please email John Glenn, john@brinkproductions.com