Presented by State Theatre Company and Belvoir
By Angela Betzien

It was a nightmare that year; we had bodies bobbing all over Sydney Harbour.
 

Mortido is a revenge tragedy, crime thriller and contemporary morality play all rolled into one.

It begins with a Mexican fable about death and ends in Sydney’s Western suburbs. In-between it takes in the Sydney police force, Qantas, quinoa, Berlin, Nazi Germany, Krispy Kreme donuts, Coca Cola, public housing, a seventh birthday party, the property market and a body in our country’s most famous Harbour. The connective tissue? Cocaine and a narrative with the power of a locomotive.

Jimmy is a small-time dealer and Monte is a biggish-time distributor. Grubbe is a detective. They all want the same thing: to live out their lives in leisure. And a water view would be nice. But for Jimmy and Monte to win, Grubbe has to lose. Same goes the other way.

Australian Writers’ Guild Award Winner Angela Betzien is a virtuoso playwright who can write a great line in comedy as easily as she writes a thrilling plot, furious social critique or magical realism. Mortido is her most ambitious play so far, and a brilliant portrait of the Emerald City: familiar, bizarre, glorious and mean.

Melbourne Theatre Company’s Associate Director Leticia Cáceres directs film and stage legend Colin Friels and company in a brilliant new play about crime, globalisation and the killer desire for a bigger house. A co-production with Sydney’s legendary Belvoir, Mortido premieres in Adelaide before travelling to its metaphorical home in Sin City.

World Premiere Season

Mortido was co-commissioned by Belvoir and Playwriting Australia