A young boy who just wants to play cricket, a teenage girl begrudgingly playing happy families, a mother on a holiday gifted to her by colleagues, and a tour guide who revisits the site every day…. all strangers until they meet in the delicate aftermath of one of Australia’s darkest days. Stories intertwine and voices shift as memories, resentments, healing, and humanity collide.
Based on real accounts from people affected by the Port Arthur massacre, Beyond The Neck is a profoundly moving portrait of a community learning to live beyond trauma. Humour flickers through the darkness. Kindness sits beside pain. Creating a space for stillness, breath and hope, and a reminder that healing is a shared act.
A piece of theatre which is closer to a musical quartet than a traditional play, rhythm and timbre play vital roles in this powerful Australian work, almost as important as characterisation and narrative structure. A uniquely intricate and beautiful style of theatre writing, this new Theatre Works production, directed by Suzanne Chaundy, promises to be a highlight on the Melbourne arts calendar this March. Not to be missed.
Based in St Kilda, Theatre Works has been home to bold, independent theatre for more than 40 years. They give artists the space, support and freedom to take risks, and audiences the chance to discover powerful new Australian stories. Each year, they present dozens of productions across their three venues, from reimagined classics to brand new works, created in partnership with some of the country’s most exciting theatre makers.
Beyond The Neck is playing as part of the By Theatre Works programming stream. Other By Theatre Works productions in 2026 include Australian Open, Savages, Mara, Red Sky Morning, Lazarus, Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, The Wolves, and Lord of the Flies.