If you choose to vanish, you probably won’t be found

In a hotel room overlooking the Spanish Steps in Rome, three versions of a story are told at three different times: by an older woman Lilian (Noni Hazlehurst), a young woman June (Asher Keddie), and an older man Nathan (Nicholas Bell).

As each character reveals how they came to be in that room, the audience pieces together the shadowy story of a young man’s mysterious disappearance and its shattering implications. The characters’ chilling stories weave back and forth; contradicting, clarifying, and deepening the resonance of each as they unfold.

In Madagascar, playwright J.T. Rogers meditates on the past’s ability to hold on to us and our slow-arriving acceptance that it may never let go.

A taut and challenging drama about purity, ideals and inconsolable regret, J.T. Rogers’ powerful new American voice promises to deliver maximum impact in the Arts Centre’s intimate Fairfax Studio.

“A chamber piece with an atmosphere like a held breath, Madagascar is an unlikely whodunit, an astoundingly gripping piece of theatre. And like the best mysteries, it’s up to the audience to piece together the unexpectedly chilling tale that emerges from our three narrators, sharing the same room yet separated by time” – MTC Artistic Director Simon Phillips.

J.T. Rogers may be a relatively unknown playwright to Australian audiences, but he is gaining recognition as a formidable new theatrical voice in both the UK and the US. Edward Albee describes Rogers’ Madagascar as “a subtle, beautifully written, sad, and disturbing play”.

Rogers’ awards include a NEA/TCG and NYFA fellowship, the Pinter Review Prize for Drama, the American Theatre Critics Association Osborne Award and the William Inge Centre for the Arts New Voice Award.

Rogers’ plays include Overwhelming and White People. He is currently writing new plays for the National Theatre in London and the Lincoln Centre Theatre. His works are published in the US and UK by Faber and Faber and in acting editions by Dramatists Play Service. Rogers is a member of both PEN and the Dramatists Guild.