We’re sad to announce that due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Brown’s Mart and New Ghosts Theatre Company’s new work Hush, by Darwin playwright Ciella Williams has been postponed from what would have been an October 2021 season at Brown’s Mart Theatre.

Hush tells the story of Nina, a young woman whose waters have broken at 22 weeks, one week shy of the termination deadline in the NT. On forced bed rest in Darwin hospital, and paralysed by indecision, she forms an unlikely friendship with the prickly young woman next to her as a doctor desperate to have her own baby circles. Nina slowly loses her grip on reality, as she is visited by her best friend, begging her to demand more from her life, and the apparition of her mother as a young woman.

“It is a story that strikes eerily home for anyone who has been a mother… or had a mother… or dreams or fears what it means to bring a new life into this crazy new world we’ve found ourselves a part of.” said Director of New Ghosts Theatre Co and the World Premiere production of Hush, Lucy Clements.

Hush is part of New Ghost’s IGNITE Collective – an initiative to connect up-and-coming female and non-binary artists from across Australia.

Originally scheduled to premiere at Flight Path Theatre in Sydney this July, the show’s debut season was postponed only three weeks from Opening Night due to the Greater Sydney Lockdown. Despite hope on all sides that the Sydney Director and Cast could join the Darwin half of the team this month to premiere this powerful new work, it’s become apparent that HUSH will be unable to happen this year.

The work began from a conversation between Lucy and Ciella 2 years ago. “I took Lucy’s call to write a play six days after giving birth to my daughter, Ivy, and four days before my 29th birthday.” Ciella revealed. “Naturally, birth and pregnancy sprung to mind when I was wondering what to write about. It was also around the time that there was a lot of media coverage of young women being murdered, by random strangers and by intimate partners. So ultimately I think the work started from a place of fear – fear of bringing a girl into a world… But it also is a work about love and forgiveness and longing, about generations of mothers and what gets handed down, and about friendship and strength and healing.”

Since then, Lucy and Ciella’s collaborative production of Hush crossed the country twice to develop this ambitious project alongside their team of IGNITE creatives. There are currently 20 female and non-binary artists across Darwin and Sydney – many of whom have been with the project since conception – who are all working hard to ensure that Hush gets the triumphant debut season it deserves.

“This year has involved a lot of letting go, but I’m so grateful and hopeful… I dream about giving the Sydney team a big hug on the other side of lockdown, and of seeing it come to life on the Brown’s Mart stage – my favourite theatre in the whole world, that has held my whole career. I’m extremely nervous about putting it out there, but I know that there is no kinder, more supportive audience than the Darwin community. ” said Ciella.

Lucy finished, “I have had the absolute privilege of seeing this play evolve from conception to completion over the past three years… we are letting Hush simmer inside us for a little bit longer, and grow more and more excited to meet her in her full glory next year. To our audiences: Thank you for sticking with us, and we absolutely can’t wait to finally share this production with you, as soon as it is safe to do so.”

We’ve got the bookmark holding your page, Hush, we’ll see you soon.

Find out more about New Ghosts and the Ignite Collective HERE

Donate to Brown’s Mart to support new works like Hush HERE