Summertime in the Garden of Eden

Winner of Best Theatre (small Stage) at the 2012 Timeout Awards.

“There really is only one show that ought to be mandatory: Summertime in the Garden of Eden... Just see it.” - TimeOut Melbourne

“Joyously atrocious, their creations are so far from the good taste of nice middle class theatre that David Williamson would implode if he ever came to Sisters show... Art this good is smart, so smart that it hurts to watch” - Aussie Theatre

The South will fall, and so will her pride in the greatest love story ever told.

Melbourne’s cult queer theatre-makers, Sisters Grimm, present Summertime in the Garden of Eden - a southern gothic romance full of laughs, smarts and dizzied-up gender-play. Lush and sweeping, obscene and outrageous, it smashes past political correctness and makes excuses for nothing.

Previously put up for only the bravest audiences in a shed complete with live chickens and a beer fridge in Thornbury, Summertime in the Garden of Eden managed to sell out its premiere season and garner critical acclaim. This time, Theatre Works welcomes Sisters Grimm (The Sovereign Wife, Little Mercy, When Lorraine Stops Falling) to their Selected Works season before they lift their hoop skirts and head off to Sydney.

Set in Georgia, 1861, against the backdrop of the American Civil War, Summertime in the Garden of Eden is the story of a faded Southern belle who returns to the family plantation after ten years away. In the spirit of Gone With The Wind and Jezebel, combined with the histrionic theatre of Tennessee Williams, Sisters Grimm create a familiar, sepia-stained world of cotton-fields, iced-tea on the lanai, and deep, dark family secrets.

This production stars infamous Melbourne scene-queens Agent Cleave and Olympia Bukkakis (as feuding debutantes), alongside Peter Paltos, Genevieve Giuffre, and Bessie Holland as 'Big Daddy'.

Sisters Grimm have been happily pillaging from cinema and drag for the past seven years. Formed in 2006 by Ash Flanders and Declan Greene, the company have spent their time on Melbourne’s theatre scene making theatre that is ‘cheap, accessible, and extremely faggy’. The company’s shows have appeared at Adelaide Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, Falls Festival, shopfronts, garages, basements, lounge rooms, galleries, gay bars, sold out seasons at Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company and later this year, Griffin Theatre.

Duration: 70 mins
Warnings: Adult themes, smoke machines, recommended for 16 years and over