HUBRIS & HUMILIATION

(DEVELOPMENT)

BY LEWIS TRESTON

KINGS CROSS THEATRE, SYDNEY (2020)

I’M STARTING TO BELIEVE THAT PLAYWRIGHTS MIGHT ONLY GET ONE OR TWO TRULY GREAT MOMENTS WHEN CREATING ANY PLAY… IF THEY’RE LUCKY!

— LEWIS TRESTON (ON THE DEVELOPMENT)

Love is the cause and solution to all of our problems.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a down-on-her-luck mother (who has just lost her home to a predatory cat fish) must send her only gay son to Sydney to find and marry rich.

Elliott Delaney understands that he must meet, woo and marry a member of Sydney’s homosexual aristocracy... but he’s still very much in love with his best friend back home, who is in love with someone else.

What follows is a kaleidoscopic satire of class, queerness, and modern love — equal parts Jane Austen and Mardi Gras extravaganza.

HUBRIS & HUMILIATION premiered at the Sydney Theatre Company in 2023, and won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best New Australian Work.