Nominated at the 2025 NSW Literary Prizes and described by the Sydney Morning Herald in a five-star review as “a blazing standout” that makes them “excited for Australian theatre,” Cut Chilli arrives in Melbourne as one of the most talked-about new Australian works of the year.
The play centres on Jamie, abandoned as a baby in Sri Lanka and raised in Mandurah, Western Australia, by his adoptive mother Katherine. While studying in Melbourne, Jamie falls for Zahra, an activist and podcaster whose research into international adoption history begins to unravel the story he thought he knew. As Zahra’s project, Decolonising My Boyfriend, starts recording in real time, Jamie is pushed toward uncomfortable truths about his origins and the missing details of his adoption file.
What follows is a return journey to family, memory and cultural identity, where long-held silences begin to fracture. Set largely around a kitchen table, Cut Chilli builds its tension through conversation, humour and confrontation as wine flows and buried histories rise to the surface. Katherine’s determination to protect the past collides with Jamie’s need to understand it, reshaping the family dynamic in unexpected ways.
Playwright Chenturan Aran describes the work as deeply human at its core. “Ultimately, I see Cut Chilli as a universal tale about a family struggling to find open dialogue and compassion to learn about each other’s secret pains and losses. I believe now more than ever, we need stories about how we navigate difficult conversations around imperfect histories.”
Directed by Isabella Vadiveloo, the Melbourne premiere brings together a new creative team committed to politically engaged, form-pushing storytelling grounded in underrepresented voices.
NSW Literary Prizes judges praised the work as leaving audiences “breathless with both laughter and heartache” and called it a bold exploration of identity, belonging and intergenerational trauma.
Cut Chilli runs 12 to 23 August 2026 at Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre.
For tickets and session times, visit https://arts.darebin.vic.gov.au/
