19 Weeks

19 weeks, winner of the Melbourne Fringe Tour Ready Award at this year's Adelaide Fringe, the Jill Blewett Playwright's Award at the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature 2018, and the Best Theatre Award at Adelaide Fringe 2017, is coming to Melbourne Fringe. 19 weeks will be staged in the swimming pool at the Adina Apartment Hotel Melbourne, 13th to 22nd September.

Written by Emily Steel and performed by Tiffany Lyndall Knight, the 2018 touring production of 19 weeks is directed by Nescha Jelk with music by Josh Belperio. (The original 2017 production was directed by Daisy Brown.)

19 weeks is about Emily Steel's experience, in 2016, of terminating a pregnancy after the baby was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. It's an honest and intimate account of a controversial choice and stigmatised experience, staged as a beautiful piece of site-specific theatre.

The original 2017 Adelaide season sold out before its first preview. The 2018 Perth and Adelaide seasons also sold out. A radio version of 19 weeks has been broadcast in the UK on BBC Radio 4, and next year a new production will be staged by Northern Light Theatre in Canada.

Emily Steel has written for theatre and radio in Australia and the UK. Her work includes plays for State Theatre Company SA, previous award-winning shows for the Adelaide Fringe and a number of radio plays for the BBC. Tiffany Lyndall Knight is known for her role as the Hybrid in Battlestar Galactica. Nescha Jelk regularly directs shows for State Theatre Company SA, and is a co-founder of independent theatre company Tiny Bricks. Josh Belperio is a young composer, writer, performer and conductor.

Melbourne Fringe performances: 13-15, 18-22 September at 8pm
Venue: Adina Apartment Hotel Melbourne, 189 Queen Street, Melbourne, Vic 3000
Tickets: $26-$30 at melbournefringe.com.au