Away

Away is a play written by the Australian playwright Michael Gow. First performed by the Griffin Theatre Company in 1986, it tells the story of three internally conflicted families holidaying on the coast for Christmas, 1968. Away has become one of the most widely produced Australian plays of all time and is part of the Higher School Certificate syllabi or general High School Curriculum in many states, including Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. With the play's conscious nods to Shakespeare (it opens with the school's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and ends with King Lear.) Gow emphasises the performativity of individual human responses to death, racism, class, and relationships. Gow sees the play as largely autobiographical. Synopsis To conclude the year, a high school stages a production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ by William Shakespeare. The play is directed by Miss Latrobe, whose work is praised by the headmaster Roy. Among the performers are Tom and Meg, who form a polite friendship and show a mutual attraction to each other.