Ron Elisha

‘Anne Being Frank’ is a total re-imagining of the story of Anne Frank.

It poses the basic question: Had Anne known precisely what was in store for her and her family at the hands of the Nazis, would she still have written the famous line: ‘In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart’?

The play takes place within three ‘worlds’: The world of the secret annex, where Anne and her family are hiding from their German occupiers – this is the story we all know, though it is now retold in hindsight. The world of the concentration camp – Bergen-Belsen – where Anne and her sister, Margot, ended their days. And an imagined world, where Anne is going over the manuscript of her diary together with her editor at a publishing house in Manhattan after the war.

But, at great personal cost, she has, with her devastating new insight into the depths of human depravity, rewritten her entire diary, so that she is constantly having to justify her choices to her editor, who dearly wishes to maintain the purity and innocence of the original.

It is a re-imagining that is designed to force us to view an iconic story that we thought we knew through entirely fresh eyes, leading us to question certain dear-held assumptions.

Wendy has been Zeke's personal assistant for two years, during the course of which she has transformed his business. One evening, working late, he takes her to dinner, during which he offers her an associateship by way of recognition of her efforts and abilities.
One thing leads to another, and the evening results in a sexual encounter, with far-reaching consequences.

The play is a nuanced deep-dive into the murky waters of sexual harassment in the workplace.

Ludwig Wittgenstein is regarded by many as the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. And yet, he achieved this extraordinary reputation through the publication in 1921 of just one slim (75-page) treatise: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.

The central thrust of this work (at the risk of massive oversimplification) is that our understanding of the universe is limited by language, and that what is beyond language is therefore unknowable.

Being possessed of a brilliant and restless mind, and with this publication under his belt, Wittgenstein felt he had adequately dealt with the great philosophical questions of the day, and went on to other things.

With the advent of war, he eschewed philosophy altogether and became a porter at Guy’s Hospital in London (1941). It was his job to distribute the medications to patients throughout the hospital. As often as not, he talked them out of taking such medications.

Throughout his stint at the hospital, he ensured that his true identity was never revealed.

It is known that Wittgenstein was gay, and that he seemed to prefer the company of men of the ‘working-classes’ but, beyond this, little is known of his private life.

In The Soul Of Wittgenstein, he forms one such liaison with a patient by the name of John Smith, a young, illiterate Cockney.

Wittgenstein’s work dealt predominantly with the interface between language and philosophy, and it is through his relationship with Smith in this dense, complex and deeply moving script that each of them comes to a new understanding of their world.

A mysterious African American approaches Yad Vashem - the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem - with an offer of a donation of a billion US dollars, but on one condition: Yad Vashem must extend its remit to memorialise ALL genocides, not only the Jewish one. Meanwhile a strange mural materialises on the walls of the building's foyer, transforming over time. It's drawn from the famous photograph of a small Jewish boy being arrested by German soldiers during WW2, and its transformation is loaded with meaning.

It is November 22, 1963.

JFK has just been shot dead.

We are aboard Air Force One, taking off from Love Field in Dallas, Texas.

Lyndon Baines Johnson – the newly sworn-in President – Jackie Kennedy – the grieving widow of the recently deceased President – and the casket, the last forming the centrepiece in what is arguably the most emotionally charged airplane journey of all time.

As the hunt for the assassin unfolds off-stage, the Widow and the Usurper are forced to confront the personal consequences of what has just happened.

Layer by painful layer is stripped back as we bear witness to the dreams, the fears and the regrets of these two iconic figures, suddenly finding themselves at the very pivoting point of history.

Initially at opposing poles of the emotional universe, by journey’s end they have reached an odd kind of understanding – one that has taken root in the shadow of the dead President’s casket.

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Taking its inspiration from a recorded conversation that took place between Lyndon Baines Johnson and Jackie Kennedy 10 days after the assassination, Love Field explores what it is inside one human being that engenders love in another.

What do John F. Kennedy, Stanley Kubrick, Tom Schelling, Peter Sellers and Frank Sinatra have in common?

Tom Schelling won the Nobel Prize in 2005 for his work in game theory.

He began his career soon after World War II as an economist involved in the Marshall Plan.

By the late 50s and early 60s, he had become a widely respected nuclear strategist, whose connection with Robert McNamara (John F. Kennedy’s Secretary of Defense) meant that his influence fed directly into White House policy.

Many give him (and his work) credit for the US having averted all-out nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Some also credit him with having been instrumental in moving the US towards involvement in Vietnam.

At the time Schelling was publishing his work on nuclear strategy, an article he wrote for the London Observer was noticed by Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick met with Schelling, and the idea for Dr Strangelove was born.

In a complex and disarming work that weaves its way between the world of realpolitik and the ‘reality’ of filmmaking, The Schelling Point explores the fanciful and ultimately romantic game theory notion that human behaviour is largely rational.

Using the Schelling Point – the point at which two parties who are unable to communicate can reach a common ground – as its focal point, the play undercuts the political landscape of the sixties with the personal crises of its protagonists, played out to the emotional rhythms of Sinatra’s unrepentant romanticism.

The result is a complex, funny, often moving and unsettling piece that challenges our notions of how the world really works.

Asher, a deeply observant young Jew, struggles with his sexuality, and seeks help from Zev, a 'conversion therapist'.

A Dangerous comedy about not going quietly.

In six short years, esteemed Artistic Director Ira Brot has transformed a small, struggling theatre company into an international sensation. He has the world at his feet; money, influence and creative freedom. Yet one little tweet brings his world tumbling down.

In the midst of this turmoil, he must deal with a complex relationship with his mother, Freda – a second-generation Holocaust survivor who, though she has passed on, is alive and well inside his head.

Add to this a much younger wife, Glenda – born Christian, converted to Judaism, never truly accepted by his mother in life or in death and more or less forced to bend her life to Ira’s career – an antagonistic, vaguely anti-Semitic chairperson of the board, Viola, and her young appointee as Ira’s Assistant Director, Georgia, and you have all the ingredients for one of the oldest of all culture wars, played out on a modern stage.

“Rootless Cosmopolitans” is a timely black comedy from prolific Australian playwright Ron Elisha. This thought-provoking and challenging new play explores the polarising power of social media, antisemitism, and the minefield of identity politics.

In late 1944, a 17-year-old Sidney Poitier was working as a dishwasher in a New York restaurant.

Barely able to survive, he went for an audition at the American Negro Theatre, but was thrown out when they discovered he was barely literate. (He had been brought up in extreme poverty, and had only had two years of schooling.)

An elderly Jewish waiter became aware of Sidney’s problem and offered to read the daily news with Sidney at the end of each evening shift.

Over the months, as Sidney slowly mastered the written word, the two men formed a bond.

The rest is history.

Remi, in the midst of what appears to be a full-blown psychotic episode, is admitted to a psychiatric institution.

There are no clues as to her identity but, in the course of teasing out the clues as to who she is, it surfaces that she has recently accepted a job as a content moderator for a social media platform.

The job, over time, has been taking its toll on her psychological reserves.

The tipping-point is reached when, in the line of work, she comes across what appears to be a porn video involving a woman whom she believes to be her boss’s wife.

From this point forward, her life, along with the lives of her father, her boss and his wife, start to unravel.

But an even darker, uglier truth has yet to emerge.

In a tightly wound narrative that borders on courtroom drama, we are forced to confront the moral contradictions that underpin the entire edifice of social media.

Contradictions that we continue to ignore, with devastating consequences.

Eric and Kynza have a son, Jason, who suffers from severe ADHD. As a result, they've set up a foundation in his name to help families in a similar situation. So tirelessly have they devoted themselves to the cause that Eric is named Australian of the Year. However, the single-mindedness that allowed him to reach this position has meant that other aspects of his life have suffered, as a result of which the family begins to unravel.

The play follows the intersecting fortunes of Alma Mahler, Martha Freud, Katia Mann and Mileva Einstein as they negotiate the private wreckage left in the wake of their respective husbands' public success.

Lenny lives alone.

Once a busy GP at the epicentre of a vibrant family, he now has no recollection whatever of the life he has led.

These days, life’s chief adventure, relived each day, is the tracking down of the remote control.

Into this rather desolate and shapeless life steps Lola, a friendly visitor sent from the local council.

What she finds is a stubbornly independent man who sees no reason why this stranger has entered his home.

Nor do successive visits render her any less a stranger, as she finds she must re-establish her credentials every single time.

Despite her every attempt to provide him with visual cues and aides memoire, he continues to live within the moment.

The poignancy of his plight forces her to question the meaning of her own past, her own life, of life itself. The discoveries she makes force her to re-evaluate her future.

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A Tree, Falling has about it a gentle humour, built into the fabric of a poignant, subtly profound work that seeks to probe the centrality of human memory as a means to understanding the meaning of human existence.

Along the way, themes of identity, loss, the passage of time and our connectedness to one another weave a narrative that speaks to us of the essence of the human condition. Not as a philosopher might speak, or a priest, or even a dramatist, but as a fellow traveller.

Sol Goldberg, a blind amateur pianist, ekes out a living writing speeches for special occasions.

He is initially approached by Lev and Tosha Goldberg with a request that he write their daughter, Nina, a speech for her 21st birthday party.

Once entwined with the dynamics of the Goldberg family, however, he finds it’s not that easy to extricate himself, as they keep coming back in greater numbers with requests for a variety of speeches for a variety of occasions.

Over the years, the relationships between the various Goldbergs begin to morph into something new and quite different.

But beneath the surface of this family ‘comedy’ lies a more profound observation on the nature of human relationships, whereby each of us interacts with those around us on the basis of a relationship dynamic that has already moved on.

Dr John Everyman is a retired GP who lives alone with his dog, to which we are introduced.

Dr Everyman never liked dogs, and still doesn’t, particularly.

But he takes us carefully through the somewhat complicated relationship he has with this particular dog.

In so doing, he perhaps reveals a little more of himself than he’d intended.

A retelling of the Lear story from Cordelia's POV - a very different story.

Anyone who has ever raised a family knows only too well the unbearable angst that accompanies the sound of a babe crying in the night.

The more prolonged the crying, the greater the angst.

And yet, as parents, though we might move heaven and earth in order to spare our children the slightest sorrow, it is as much our role to allow them to learn how to cry as it is to protect them from the very troubles that provoke their tears.

That is the impossible balancing act of parenthood. An act carried out, as often as not, in the midst of the intimate darkness of the marital bed, in the dead of night.

More than any other place on earth, be it a battlefield, a bar-room or the back stairs, the marital bed is where the true business of life is transacted - in furtive, whispered darkness, from conception through to death.

And it is within this most secret of places, through a series of deft scenes spanning over a quarter of a century, that the drama of Controlled Crying is played out.

Here, amidst the rumpled, chaotic counterpane of life, where Libby and Oscar play out the odyssey that is the raising of Millie.

And an odyssey it truly is, with all the angst, the humour, the pettiness and the profundity of life itself.

Jane wants another young couple to experience the joys of parenthood, and so she decides to donate her frozen embryo. Her husband, Ross, isn’t too fussed either way.

The potential recipient, Leah, is desperate. Her husband, Brad, has bigger fish to fry.

Contracts are exchanged, the embryo is implanted, and all seems well until the reality of donation sets in. Jane is having trouble letting go.

Wrongful Life is a somewhat imprecise legal term whereby a parent or child asserts that, had a doctor’s conduct met the required standard of care, the child would not have been born.

To date, the cases brought in Australia have focused either on children born with disabilities or on failed sterilisation procedures.

In the play “Wrongful Life”, Ron Elisha – a practising GP – pushes the envelope just that little bit further.

For Gina, nothing has ever come easily. Life has always been a struggle and, at 16, she has reached the conclusion that it is simply too hard. Put simply, life for Gina is not worth living.

By dint of the discovery that, according to Gina’s mother (Eve), Gina was born only because Eve’s GP (Selina) talked her out of an abortion, Gina urges her mother to take out an action for Wrongful Life on her behalf against Selina.

The play traces the progress of the case, layer building upon layer and irony upon irony, until each player, pushed to the limits of logical extreme, falls victim to the inexorable voraciousness of the legal process.

In a searing and searching social critique, Wrongful Life seeks to examine the very meaning of life. What is it, in other words, that makes life worth living? Or not worth living.

Along the way, we are treated to a savvy, blow-by-blow, behind-the-scenes expose of how “The System” actually works.

Perhaps the most telling aspect of Wrongful Life is that, when the curtain finally comes down, we become aware of the fact that there are no true protagonists in this piece – only victims.

And we are forced to ask ourselves why.

It’s 1936.
Marlene Dietrich – the most famous female movie star in the world – is in London to make a movie.
News breaks that King Edward VIII is about to abdicate his throne in order to marry the American divorcée, Wallis Simpson.
Deeply concerned at the destabilization of Empire in the face of the growing Nazi threat Marlene, on the night before the abdication, has her chauffeur drive her to Fort Belvedere, the King’s country home.
Her plan is to seduce the King – her powers of seduction are legendary – thereby proving to him that Wallis Simpson is not irreplaceable and, therefore, not worthy of his abdication.
That evening, the King is alone at Fort Belvedere, save for the presence of the Keeper of the Privy Purse.
Beyond this point, the story has several versions.
This is one.

Grace and Jimmy are a young couple with a small child, living in a high-rise apartment.

One morning, Grace notices that a young and beautiful couple in an apartment block on the other side of the courtyard are completely naked, making love.

At first, Grace is somewhat shocked and embarrassed, but the scene is mesmerizing, and the more she tries not to look, the more she finds that she is unable to turn away.

As the days (and nights) pass, it appears that the beautiful young couple do nothing but have sex.

With a small child on board, Grace and Jimmy’s own sex life has been put on ice, which means that Grace is less than pleased when Jimmy discovers what’s going on across the courtyard. She doesn’t want him drawing invidious comparisons or, for that matter, getting ideas.

After a while, however, the scene across the courtyard becomes a part of the daily ritual of their lives, as they lie in bed and stare through the window (their new ‘television’), positing theories as to who these youngsters are as they watch them in their endlessly creative lovemaking.

But then, one day, Paradise is lost.

They see the young man making love to another woman.

Grace feels she owes it to the man’s regular partner to let her know what’s going on, but she’s unable to find a way of doing so.

The young couple’s relationship resumes and, for a while, it seems that they have been able to get their act back on track.

The young woman becomes pregnant. The couple seem set for an idyllic future, but Grace can’t rid herself of an underlying sense of foreboding.

The dynamic of the relationship undergoes a complete transformation, as Grace is drawn deeper and deeper into the lives of these young strangers.

Or are they strangers?

Window is a startling exploration of the nature and meaning of human intimacy.

The power dynamics and machinations at the court of Crown Prince Esterhazy, when Leopold Mozart (incognito) shows up as events unfold leading to Haydn's writing of the 'Farewell' symphony.

Four 17-year-old students are trapped in a room in lockdown during a school shooting.