THE VERY POPULAR THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS:CONTRACTIONS BY MIKE BARTLETT

Newcastle audiences are in for a rare treat this December as The Very Popular Theatre Company stages Mike Bartlett’s critically acclaimed one-act play, Contractions, in the intimate and atmospheric Fern St Studios.

Emma’s been seeing Darren. She thinks she’s in love.

Her boss thinks she’s in breach of contract.

The situation needs to be resolved…

Set entirely within the confines of a corporate HR office, Contractions is a darkly comic and chilling exploration of power, privacy, and control. What begins as a seemingly ordinary workplace meeting quickly escalates into a tense and unnerving power struggle, where personal freedoms are tested, and every polite phrase hides a threat.

First performed at London’s Royal Court Theatre in 2008, the play has been praised for its razor-sharp wit and unnerving humour and has earned a reputation as one of Bartlett’s most biting and provocative works. Critics have called it “brutally entertaining… ferociously funny while being absolutely appalling” (Daily Telegraph) and “grotesquely funny – and it chills to the bone” (The Times).

Directed by Daniel Stoddart, this production stars two of Newcastle’s most compelling performers Katie Blaxland (Mary Poppins, Jersey Boys) and Megan Kennedy (Every Second, Banging Denmark), whose dynamic performances bring Bartlett’s tension-filled dialogue to life. Stoddart admits, “I never intended for this to be a full-blown production - it started as a workshop project, but I got a little carried away. Katie and Megan are two of my favourite Newcastle actors, and this was the perfect opportunity to work with them together.”

“Staging it in the intimate space of our own Fern St Studios is like entering the meeting room yourself and offers our audiences a front-row seat to every twist, turn, and uncomfortable laugh,” said Stoddart. “It will be an intense and immersive theatrical experience, thought provoking, disturbing and uncomfortably funny.”

Step inside the corporate world like never before, where every word matters, every action is scrutinised, and a simple meeting can become a corporate nightmare. At once both absurd, and horrifyingly familiar, you’ll be talking about this show around the water cooler at work for days afterward!

Contractions runs for 60 minutes with no interval and will be staged for four performances only: 8:00pm | 10–13 December | Fern St Studios | Tickets $40