In Break of Day, Kat Stewart and Sarah Goodes examine a universal story of poverty and progress
The new Australian play 'Break of Day' explores the impact of industrial change and automation on a struggling regional town. Directed by Sarah Goodes, the production uses the metaphor of a massive online retail distribution center to examine universal themes of poverty and technological displacement.
Why it matters
It highlights the growing cultural anxiety surrounding the rise of AI and automation in regional economies.
Kat Stewart plays struggling mother Pamela, the central figure in new Australian play Break of Day. ( Supplied: Malthouse Theatre/Sulaiman Enayatzada )
Link copied Share Share article In the largely forgotten town of Burra Creek, something hums all night.
This regional area has long surfed the peaks and troughs wrought by industry moving in, promising big, and then moving out once a profit has been made. Now, the latest has arrived.
The Warehouse that sits on the edge of town is the world's largest online retail distribution centre.
It's also the perfect representation of unease at the centre of the new Australian play coming to Malthouse Theatre in Naarm/Melbourne, Break of Day.
Throughout the taut beats of this story, the threatening atmosphere of The Warehouse is always present.
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