Every Second Wednesday

Of course you hate them. What they’ve done. To their lives. To your lives. You hate them. But you love them, too. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t.

Award-winning writer Andrew Bovell ( Lantana, When the Rain Stops Falling ) returns with a clear-eyed look at the people who share the burden of loving someone struggling with addiction – directed by acclaimed theatre maker Sarah Goodes ( Julia, Sunday ).

Every second Wednesday, an unlikely group of eight meets in a suburban community centre. Led by Sue, a facilitator with a troubled past of her own, it’s made up of parents, partners and siblings carrying their own versions of the same crisis. Kat watches her teenage son’s meth addiction unravel their lives. Ageing couple Stella and Don care for their alcoholic adult son. Maddie hopes her troubled brother might show up for her wedding. Into this fragile community comes Jude, returning home to care for the dying mother whose addiction defined his childhood.

Grief and frustration crowd the room, but so do compassion and tenderness, as a group of relative strangers keep turning up for each other. Known for excavating the profound from ordinary moments, Bovell has created a new work that finds warmth and humour in the often-brutal honesty of loving someone whose addiction you cannot control – and continuing to show up anyway.