JUTE Theatre Company will launch its 21st year in 2013 with a sharp, funny and tropical new work by Jane Modric titled Soph and the Real World.

Premiering in Cairns from March 9-23, Soph and the Real World will be directed by JUTE artistic director and CEO Suellen Maunder and feature a top cast of local professional acting talent, including Ella Watson-Russell, David Terry, Rachel Terry and Steven Grant.

Maunder believes it will appeal to people who love music, clever language and who are looking to deepen their experience of theatre.

She says writer Jane Modric delivers a biting expose of familial dysfunction, with a quirky new take on the ubiquitous elephant in the room and all it symbolises, making for an illuminating, amusing and, at times, disturbing ride through the psyche of lead character Soph, and the sources of her neuroses.

"Jane began developing the script when she joined our Enter Stage Write program in 2009, and it was clear she was a natural writer," Maunder says. "Her script is full of musical rhythm, and uses sparkling humour to reveal the story.

"Her musical background places music and musicians at the centre of this story, contrasting the sounds of the jazz trumpet against the trauma of life, as she deliberately unpicks the sometimes destructive nature of the creative persona.

"It will be delightful, I think, for our audiences to have that live musician on stage, that live trumpet player."

At the centre of the play is commitment-shy Soph, a poster girl for the stereotypical dysfunctional muso. Life may not be a fairytale but this is Soph's story and she's sticking to it  as long as she has wine, cigarettes and a stash of chocolate to help glue it all together.

The occasional visit from the charming Nick doesn't hurt either.

When Soph's sister, Alice, arrives with bad news, Nick decides he wants more, and a trumpet-playing spectre appears from nowhere to harangue her and her body begins a revolution of its own.

"The play takes some thorny subjects and wraps a comedy around them," Maunder explains.

"Real-life is often absurd, and survival requires a sharp sense of humour.

It's a provocative piece and I'm excited to be bringing it to Cairns audiences."

JUTE Theatre Company's Soph and the Real World runs from March 8-23 at Centre of Contemporary Arts, Abbott St. Tickets on sale at jute.com.au

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