Forget Me Not

A co-commission with Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Theatres

Gerry is almost 60, and he is going to meet his mother for the first time since he was three. His daughter Sally has had it up to here with him and his problems. The old lady lives somewhere in the UK. Liverpool, according to the records. So Gerry is going there to find out what made him who he is.

Tom Holloway’s gem of a play started life as a conversation between Belvoir and Liverpool’s Everyman and Playhouse Theatres. Holloway’s task was to tell the story of the 3,000+ British children who, between 1945 and 1968, were  told they were orphans and sent to Australia on a promise of warmth, fresh air, abundant food and boundless opportunity. Instead they arrived to deprived institutions where neglect and abuse were the norm.

Holloway’s brilliant leap of imagination has been to set this story not at its outset half a century ago, but here and now. He has written a series of raw, often achingly beautiful conversations between members of a scattered family. Drawing the whole thing together is Gerry’s extraordinary, precarious bid to finally learn what it means to love and belong to a family.

Belvoir’s own Anthea Williams (Old Man) directs this exquisite portrait of a man on a journey to meet the mother he never knew.

Mandy McElhinney
Colin Moody
Eileen O’Brien
Oscar Redding 

By Tom Holloway
Director Anthea Williams
Set & Costume Designer Dan Potra
Lighting Designer Matthew Marshall
Composer & Sound Designer Stefan Gregory
Stage Managers Luke McGettigan, Eva Tandy
Assistant Stage Manager Chantelle Foster

Production images by Lisa Tomasetti

Rehearsal images by Brett Boardman

There’s no actor to touch Moody in conveying emotional fragility clothed in bloody-mindedness.

Deborah Jones | The Australian

Holloway doesn’t let Gerry off the hook for his own misdeeds, but Moody’s portrayal is so stirring and sympathetic that the closure he ultimately attains feels like ours too.

Darryn King | The Sydney Morning Herald

This is a beautifully written script by Tom Holloway and well conceived by director Anthea Williams.

Whitney Fitzsimmons | Stage Whispers

All the performances in Forget Me Not are a-grade.

Dee Jefferson | Time Out

One of the finest pieces of writing currently on Sydney stages, remarkably acted and honest, it is one of the best plays of the year.

Cassie Tongue | Aussie Theatre

The performances and production are tremendous, Colin Moody literally towers over it, but Eileen O’Brien is a rare and wonderful stage spirit and not overshadowed by him. Great stuff.

Diana Simmonds | Stage Noise