Sydney Opera House

"Sombre and reflective and all the sunnier for Keene's ability to communicate intimacies and acts of faith amid life's unending struggle."  The Sydney Morning Herald  

Read an article with Ewen Leslie in the Sydney Morning Herald  

Multi-award winning writer Daniel Keene is one of the most performed Australian playwrights outside of the country. During the thirty years in which he has written for the theatre, his plays have earned critical praise and sell-out seasons in theatres and at festivals in Australia, the United States and across Europe.

In The Serpent’s Teeth, the STC Actors Company performs a double-bill of two compelling and moving one-act plays by Keene. The two plays – Citizens and Soldiers – delicately reveal the real tragedy of war and its impact on ordinary, yet precious, lives.

Directed by Pamela Rabe in her STC directing debut, the first play, Citizens, is set at the dividing wall of an unnamed country. Conflict is an unseen force which disrupts the daily routines of the citizens - eroding their choices and shifting the possibilities of their days. Over the course of the play the nobility and generosity of the human spirit, even at its most vulnerable, is carefully probed and laid bare
 
The second play, Soldiers, has been specially commissioned by Sydney Theatre Company as a companion piece to Citizens, and is directed by Tim Maddock, who has previously collaborated with Daniel Keene to unanimous critical and audience acclaim. In Soldiers, Keene casts a forensic and compassionate eye at five ordinary Australian families. Thrown randomly together for one day, they face together the real cost of war. For some families, the bonds of kinship are strengthened; but others find they are torn apart. Soldiers is a requiem for our time. 

Warning: This play contains language that may offend some patrons.

Running Times:
Act I        55 minutes
Interval    20 minutes
Act II       65 minutes

Photographer: Brett Boardman