Betty

Experiencing the premiere of Betty, a raw and authentic autobiographical play written by an up-and-coming playwright Jules Allen (Slipping through the cracks) is an absolute privilege. Based on the extraordinary life events of Allen, Betty invites audience members to journey alongside a mother (Rose) and daughter (Lucy) as they come to terms with the trademarks of inherited family trauma, cultural assimilation, loneliness, abuse, blame and misunderstanding, all before it’s too late. 

Sally Mackenzie (Mourning Becomes Electra & The Three Penny Opera) portrays the maternal warmonger and demented Rose, the mother of tortured Lucy (played by Allen herself). Betty is a story like no other, powerful, poignant and beautifully tragic. 

Set in the eerily familiar and intimate living room of Rose, a harrowingly uncensored exploration of dementia, challenged by cultural clashes and long-buried family secrets unfolds before our eyes. Lucy’s mother, Rose, has succumbed to dementia, and now – though they were never close – Lucy must step in to try and care for her. Betty allows audience members to be a ‘fly on the wall’ towards what has been a deeply personal scripting journey for Jules Allen. ‘Growing up in Melbourne during the 1970s with a Thai-Australian mother often resulted in powerful cultural clashes,’ says Allen. ‘After many hours, sitting alone in the dark, typing away … what resulted was Betty – an intimate play that exposes the struggles of cultural assimilation and childhood traumas, at a time when a mother’s inhibitions are compromised by her decline into dementia,’ adds Allen.  

Betty is the second play by Jules Allen, whose professional career as a humanitarian (both in Australia and internationally) was recognised in 2017 when she was awarded Alumnus of The Year at Southern Cross University. She has also been invited to deliver TEDx talks in Sydney and Melbourne and was featured on Australian Story in 2016. Throughout her life, Allen has remarkably overcome adversity, enduring drug and alcohol addictions, depression and abuse at a young age. At 21, Allen gave birth to her son and has extraordinarily gone on to foster 32 children and raise four.

Betty takes its audience on a journey like no other. The story is meticulously refined and crafted; the script is unapologetic, candid and incredibly humorous. The tension between both characters is incredibly powerful, with Mackenzie and Allen having formed a remarkably dynamic duo whose relationship on stage can only be described as palpable. Thought-provoking theatre at its finest, Betty is a comment on the complex secrets, lies and hierarchies within families and how these impact generations to come. 

Performed at Theatre Works in St Kilda, Betty is a show you don’t want to miss. 

Betty
Theatre Works, 14 Acland Street, St Kilda, 3182
On stage until Saturday 26 February 2022
theatreworks.org.au/program/betty

Images: Cameron Grant