Audiences are being enthralled by the chilling new play, Tiptoe, by Michael Beresford, now showing at the JUTE Theatre.

Even on opening night, with excitement running high in the audience, you could have heard a pin drop as tension mounted throughout this Australian gothic story about the high price of secrets.

Audience members are commenting on the extraordinary acting by the cast of four - Carol Burns, Suellen Maunder, Susan Prince and Kylee McDowall - in their challenging, sinister roles.

Reviewers are saying : “An engaging play and is definitely worth watching ... the acting is universally strong” (The Cairns Post) and “this play is intriguing, and essential viewing. In a brilliant melange of allusion, symbolism, suspense, and atmospherics – all intensely theatrical – Beresford re-imagines a Charters Towers legend in the Australian Gothic style” (Arts Nexus).

Tiptoe is a sinister, suspenseful story about the secrets we keep and the cost of keeping them, based in the gold-rush town of Charters Towers, West of Townsville.

Described by the director as a "psychic detective story", Tiptoe is a gothic tale of three elderly sisters, highly respected in their community, who have spent their long lifetimes keeping a terrible secret. 

When young Brisbane artist Emma Lee travels to Charters Towers for a public art project, she is inspired by notorious vagrants Annie Bags and Tiptoe Jen, from the town’s gold mining past.

 

Emma is driven to find out the truth about Tiptoe Jen’s mysterious disappearance, and is convinced that the elderly sisters, Winsome, Ruby and Dot, have the answers.  Once started on her dark journey of discovery, she finds that there is no turning back.

 

Like the award-winning JUTE production Constance Drinkwater and the Final Days of Somerset in 2007, Tiptoe has the intriguing elements of a juicy gothic tale: a haunting setting, heightened emotions, a terrible secret and a touch of the supernatural.

Tiptoe is on at the JUTE Theatre from until 19 July 2008.  Tickets are selling fast,  book now through TicketLink on 4031 9555. Times: Tue-Wed 6.30pm, Thu-Sat 8pm.

 

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