Venue: Flight Path Theatre (Marrickville NSW), Nov 17 – 28, 2026
Playwright: Emilie Collyer
Director: Kirsty Semaan
Cast: Melissa Jones, Willa King, Suz Mawer, Emma Monk, Lana Morgan
Images by Phil Erbacher

Theatre review
A group of recreational netball players convene for what appears, on the surface, to be a routine sporting engagement. Yet beneath the veneer of physical exertion lies a more profound undertaking: the deliberate cultivation of social bonds and a shared space for processing emotional turmoil. Though they may seem an unlikely cohort, these women gather with an unspoken recognition that loneliness is a condition to be actively, even consciously, resisted. This premise, rich with dramatic potential, forms the foundation of Emilie Colyer’s new play, Contest.

The work opens with promise, gesturing toward a meaningful exploration of female solidarity in an atomised world. However, as the evening unfolds, the initial intrigue gives way to a fundamental structural disappointment. The piece is composed of a series of vignettes that feel more like fleeting, disconnected confessions than a coherent dramatic narrative. Lacking a compelling throughline or sufficient character development to anchor our investment, the scenes accumulate without resonance, preventing the play from ever achieving the connective tissue it so desperately seeks.

While the writing itself may falter, the production elements strive to inject vitality into the proceedings. Kirsty Semaan’s direction ensures a certain visual and spatial vibrancy, and her collaboration with movement director Amelia Pawsey generates enough kinetic energy on stage to momentarily divert the eye. Yet these bursts of physical dynamism often ring hollow, feeling like choreographed diversions from a text that fails to provide substantial grounding. The exercise, for all its motion, frequently feels empty at its core.

A notable exception is Charlotte Leamon’s sound design, which emerges as a genuine highlight. Leamon’s work deftly seizes every opportunity to underscore mood and subtext, injecting texture and atmosphere into what might otherwise be an entirely staid affair. It is a sensitive and resourceful aural landscape that breathes life into the production’s quieter corners.

The five-member cast performs with admirable commitment and a convivial ensemble spirit that is not without its charms. They bring warmth and authenticity to their interactions, yet they cannot fully compensate for the material’s limitations, struggling to excavate emotional depth from characters who remain frustratingly indistinct.

Contest gestures toward an important thesis: that in the sporting arena, the ostensible goal may be victory, but for these women, the true aim is community—a quiet dismantling of the very structures designed to keep individuals apart. It is a resonant idea, this quiet act of reclaiming connection in a world engineered for solitude.

www.flightpaththeatre.org | www.spacejumptheatre.com