Toxicity Program - debase productions

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A dazzling new double bill of theatre for young people and their communities, TOXICITY is what happens when two indie theatre companies get together to interrogate what happens when toxic choices (in intimate or peer relationships) become intoxicating.

The two plays, Popping Lead Balloons and Rowans’ Story came out of intensive engagement with students in the Brisbane area during 2024 and 2025 (UQ Drama Education students, Yeronga, Kelvin Grove, MacGregor and Cleveland District State High Schools, and Alexandra Hills TAFE Senior College), allowing the works to unwrap the lives of young people in ways that are authentic, funny, provocative and respectful. The plays (and accompanying workshops) emphasize young people’s autonomy and choice and foster discussion of critical issues in a safe and supported way, championing positive social change.

Writer’s notes

Popping Lead Balloons

by Bridget Boyle, Robert Kronk and Liz Skitch

In 2008, a group of secondary school teachers approached debase productions, encouraging us to write and produce a show for touring in schools that addressed femme-to-femme bullying and toxic behaviours. Popping Lead Balloons was the result – developed via extensive workshopping and consultation with young folks and teachers. The show was structured as a stand-up comedy routine (in this early version, Mel had eventually become a comedian and was using anecdotes of her time at school as material for her set). PLB toured schools and other venues throughout Queensland and Victoria to great acclaim and now sits alongside Rowan’s Story in a new version for a new generation of young folk.

Rowan’s Story

by Elaine Acworth

Rowan’s Story is inspired by a year-long youth engagement program that created student-generated performance at SunPAC: a nuanced, touching, gut-clenching ride through the lives of young Australians, as they saw it.

Responding to that work and those young people, Acworth wrote Rowan’s Story - unpacking the complexities of generational gendered violence through the eyes of a 17-year-old as he awkwardly navigates sexuality and intimate relationships. Ten years ago, Rowan’s mother left an abusive relationship, taking Rowan with her. Now, Rowan’s father is attempting to reestablish contact, just as Rowan is experiencing his first serious intimate attraction. As these different forces collide, we explore contemporary boy culture and the un/gendered assumptions in schoolyards today. Hilarious, infuriating and vulnerable. Boys today.

Popping Lead Balloons

Writers: Bridget Boyle, Robert Kronk and Liz Skitch

Cast (in order of appearance) —

Mel: Jade Lomas-Ronan

Vanessa / Ms Finch / Tim: Judy Hainsworth

Toni / Mel’s mum / Mr Chari / Jo: Janaki Gerard

Rowan’s Story

Writer: Elaine Acworth

Cast (in order of appearance) —

Rowan: Dimitri Politis

Bren / Steve: Jack Mahoney

Tom / Liv’s mum: Jade Lomas-Ronan

Stasia: Judy Hainsworth

Liv: Janaki Gerard

Creative Team

Director: Bridget Boyle

Sound design and composition: Morgan Francis

Set and costume design: Simona Cosentini

Vision design: Nevin Howell

Associate vision design: Marshall Gray

Lighting design: Freddy Komp

Fight / Intimacy Coordinator: NJ Price

Cultural Safety officer: Katrina Irawati Graham

Stage management: Freddy Komp

Production management: Freddy Komp

Producer: Elaine Acworth

Bridget Boyle is an award-winning director, performer and theatre maker, whose directing credits include Pride and Prejudice (Queensland Theatre, co-directed with Daniel Evans), An Ideal Husband (La Boite), The Holidays (Queensland Theatre) and The Longest Minute (QT / JUTE / debase productions, co-winner Best Mainstage Show Matilda Awards). She is a co-founder of debase productions, winner of the 2018 Gold Matilda for significant contribution to Queensland theatre. Her doctoral thesis, which focused on gender and physical comedy, received an Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award from QUT in 2015.

Elaine Acworth: Based in Meanjin/Brisbane, Elaine writes for performance across mediums – stage, audio/broadcast and digital capture.

Co-founder of Assembly of Elephants, her plays have been commissioned and/or produced in Australia and overseas, by Queensland Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Comédie Française, Hackney Empire Studio, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Flipside Circus, amongst others. Her audio works have been produced by ABC Radio National, Radio France, and for State Library of Queensland.

Her work has won the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award, AWGIES, Matilda Awards and the George Landon Dann Award. Selected or short-listed for highly competitive international Playwright Exchanges (Paris; New York), she has been awarded Fellowships twice at State Library of Queensland – encouraging her commitment to performance as a way to change conversations on social issues and create cross-sector partnerships that promote change.

Janaki Gerard is a Sri Lankan Tamil-Australian actor, writer, singer and dancer based in Brisbane. Janaki is a passionate story teller and advocate for developing more platforms and projects for South Asian creatives in Australia. Her most recent credits include Back to Bilo by Belloo Creative ,Queensland Theatre and Brisbane festival. Dance Nation by That Production Company and Metro Arts, and Pride and Prejudice by Queensland Theatre.

Janaki was nominated for Best Actor at the 2024, 48 hour film competition and was a top twenty finalist in the Stellar South Asian Women of 2022 Australia. In her gap year from acting (2020) Janaki won the audience choice award at the Good Chat Comedy club in their Brat Pack competition for new comics. She holds an MFA in Acting from East 15 Acting School/University of Essex in London.

Judy Hainsworth has performed extensively with Shake & Stir theatre co, appearing in Fourteen (2024 National Tour), The Twits (2024 Sydney Opera House, 2023 National Tour), A Christmas Carol (2022), Revolting Rhymes & Dirty Beasts (2015 and 2019 National Tour), and Statespeare (2011 and 2012 National Tour). Her other theatre credits include Wilbur the Optical Whale (Indelability Arts) and the national tour of Margaret Fulton the Musical (Jally Entertainment), along with numerous productions with Little Match Productions such as Babushka Regifted, Babushka Book Club, Babushka's Right to Party, Happily Ever After, DOLL, Dead!, and I Can Keep a Secret.

She has also performed in #FirstWorldWhiteGirls: Spirit Animal and #FirstWorldWhiteGirls: Botox Party at major comedy festivals, as well as The Narcissist (STC/La Boite), Holy Guacamole (The Good Room), The Reunion (Metro Arts Independents), Assassins and Parade (Warehaus), Small Mercies (La Boite), He Died with a Felafel in his Hand (Someone), Shakespeare’s Women (Toowoomba Shakespeare Festival), and Hansel and Gretel and Turandot (Opera Queensland).

Judy is a Matilda Award nominee for Best Actress for Margaret Fulton the Musical, a winner of Best Sound Design for Happily Ever After, and a nominee for Best Supporting Actress for The Narcissist. She holds a Bachelor of Theatre Arts (Acting) with Distinction from the University of Southern Queensland.

Jade Lomas-Ronan is a proud Gamilaraay and Torres Strait Islander (Saibai Island) woman, actor, singer and storyteller based in Queensland. She is passionate about sharing stories that celebrate culture, connection, resilience and the wonderfully messy complexities of being human.

Her theatre credits include The Sapphires National Tour (Hit Productions), The Sunshine Club National Tour (Hit Productions), Tiddas (Sydney Festival and Belvoir co-production), and Eat Slay Zombie (Playlab and QPAC co-production), for which she received a Matilda Award nomination for Best Performance in a Leading Role.

In 2026, Jade will also tour regional Queensland with Ash & Amber by Shake & Stir Theatre Co. When she's not on stage, she can usually be found writing, dreaming up new stories, and finding ways to bring a little more heart, humour and truth to the world around her.

Jade is delighted to be part of this production and thanks you for supporting live theatre.

Jack Mahoney is a proud Bidjara man from Queensland. He studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting at QUT where he worked under directors such as Wesley Enoch AM, Bridget Boyle and Mairi Cameron. In 2021 he played first nations soldier Peter Craigie in a theatre production of The Forgotten Warrior with The Storey Players. He first appeared on Australian television in season 2 of Darby and Joan as Blake Ramsey. In 2025 he starred in SBS/CJZ’s AACTA award winning docudrama The People vs Robodebt as the late Rhys Cauzzo, this was followed by his mainstage theatre debut in Queensland Theatre Company’s production of A Few Good Men. He will feature in Dalliance on Paramount Plus later this year.

Dimitri Politis is a Greek-Australian actor who most recently appeared in Spa Weekend alongside Anna Faris, Leslie Mann and Michelle Buteau. A graduate of the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) at Queensland University of Technology in 2022, Dimitri trained under leading Australian practitioners, including Wesley Enoch on his graduating production and Bridget Boyle on Angels in America. Prior to his screen work, he was a member of Queensland Theatre’s Youth Ensemble (2016–2018) and has continued to build a strong foundation in theatre, contributing to the development of new Australian works with Assembly of Elephants and debase productions. Expanding his classical training internationally, he also completed the Winter Intensive at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts. Dimitri continues to work across stage and screen, bringing a grounded and versatile approach to contemporary and classical performance.

Simona Cosentini is a set and costume designer working across theatre,visual arts and interdisciplinary performance. Her practice is grounded in strong conceptual thinking and a commitment to cohesive visual dramaturgy, shaping environments that support story, rhythm and emotional landscape from first sketch to opening night.

Originally based in Gimuy/Cairns and now working from Meanjin/Brisbane, Simona has collaborated with independent producers, councils and established companies on award-recognised productions. Her work is known for its clarity of vision, textural detail and ability to deliver ambitious design outcomes within timeframes and budgets.

With a background in scenography, she approaches each project holistically — integrating space, costume and objects into a unified visual language. Simona is passionate about nurturing collaborative processes, mentoring emerging artists and building strong creative teams.

Katrina Irawati Graham is an Indonesian Australian writer, director and dramaturg working in screen and theatre. She creates in many genres including feminist horror, crime and drama.

She is twice ADG nominated for her direction on STAN Originals drama series Bali 2002. Her Indonesian ghost story, White Song, is part of Australia’s first all-female directed horror anthology, Dark Whispers (SBS). Katrina has adapted a feature script of her supernatural play, Siti Rubiyah, with Screen Queensland support. She has written two award winning online crime series and has been in writers’ rooms for ABC and SBS.
She is Development Producer at indiVisual film – international, developing a strong and diverse slate working with Australian writers from Palestinian, Iranian, Nepalese and Indian backgrounds.

She has dramaturged for La Boite, Queensland Theatre, Blakdance, Suara Dance and APT. She embeds cultural safety in all aspects of her creative practice.
Cultural safety consultancy has included Queensland Theatre, La Boite, QUT, Bodysnatchers, Assembly of Elephants, Shock Therapy, Reaction Theory and Endemol Shine across STAN, AsiaTopa, Sydney Festival, APAF.

Katrina is also in demand as a speaker and facilitator who supports deep conversations, community connections, and strong creative outcomes. Katrina is represented by BMEG.

Morgan Francis is a Meanjin based composer, sound designer and Matilda Award nominated actor. Since graduating from QUT in 2018, Morgan has composed multiple shows for Queensland Theatre, including Belloo Creative’s premier production of Boy, Lost (2022), Big Scary Animal’s critically acclaimed debut production of The Norman Mailer Anecdote (2024), as well as numerous Young Artist Ensemble productions. Morgan has also created multiple sound designs and scores for the QUT Acting Graduate shows including Dan Evans’ JOAN MUST DIE*(*I never liked her anyway) (2023), and David Morton’s Space Cowboys (2025). In the world of acting, Morgan has collaborated with Queensland Theatre, La Boîte Theatre Company (including his main stage theatre debut in Lysa and the Freeborn Dames), THAT Production company, and Dead Puppet Society (most notably in their national tour of Peter and the Starcatcher). Morgan is also the lead singer and songwriter in Brisbane rock band Lost Goat Found, and is excited to be releasing a solo album in early 2026.

Nevin Howell is a Brisbane-based video designer and videographer. He was previously a Teaching Artist at Zen Zen Zo in 2014-18; a Resident Artist at Markwell Presents in 2015-18; and an Edit Assistant at optikal bloc in 2019-21. Nevin graduated from QUT in 2016 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drama).

Nevin has made contributions as a video designer to Melbourne Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre Company, La Boite Theatre, Shake & Stir, Brisbane Festival, Metro Arts, The Little Red Company, World Science Festival Brisbane, Wynnum Fringe, QMusic, Playlab Theatre, Zen Zen Zo, Digi Youth Arts, The Good Room, THAT Production Company, Common People Dance Project, Shock Therapy Arts and Counterpilot.

Nevin received the Billie Brown Award for Best Emerging Artist in 2023 as a Video Designer at the Matilda Awards. This was for a body of work that included DRIZZLE BOY, Queensland Theatre; VIETGONE, Queensland Theatre and WHITE CHINA, Playlab Theatre.

Freddy Komp works in theatre and event production and loves delving into multi-disciplinary forays across AV, Set, and Lighting Design (nominated for 2 Groundling Awards, 4 Matilda Awards, and recipient of 2 Matilda Awards) and in AV Visual Arts Installations (including Living Rocks: A Fragment of the Universe at Venice Biennale 2019 and ZKM Karlsruhe’s The Beauty of Early Life (2022), and in stage/production management.

Freddy has worked with accomplished directors including Bridget Boyle, Margi Brown-Ash, Shaun Charles, Wesley Enoch, Daniel Evans, David Fenton, Michael Futcher, Eugene Gilfedder, Nasim Khosravi, Benjamin Knapton, Ursula Martinez, Andy Packer, Benjamin Schostakowski, Leah Shelton, Garry Stewart, and Genevieve Trace.

Marshall Gray is an emerging Video designer with a passion for storytelling, world building and immersive design. They pair this joy with their love of video and its ability to bring complex worlds to life. Marshall has taken on a variety of roles along side Video Design such as puppet fabrication, set fabrication and set LX. This experience has allowed them to explore the intersection between set, LX and video. Marshall Gray is inspired to use their skills to explore the possibilities of video within theatre.

NJ Price trained in Performing Arts at Coleg Powys and Acting and Music Theatre at Mountview Academy, London, where she became obsessed with stage combat. NJ is accredited with the British Academy of Dramatic Combat (Advanced with Recommendation – mark of excellence – globally the highest and rarest honour award), and The Society of Australian Fight Directors. NJ has also trained internationally with many fight masters, the British Academy of Fencing and many martial arts, gaining multiple awards over the years, namely NAS Australian Champion in Women’s Advanced and Veterans divisions, 2018.

NJ is a regular fight choreographer with Queensland Theatre (The Sapphires, Torch The Place, Drizzle Boy, Medea), QUT, and numerous independent theatre companies. NJ also choreographs fight and intimacy scenes for film – (By The Horns, $wagapino, Hafu, The Edge, Black Tie Optional, Silver Stiletto) and performed some of her own stunts in Harrow and True Love. NJ also works as a PT for people with disabilities as a hydrotherapy facilitator. One of her passions and focus is psychology, connecting the conscious and subconscious - mind and body, and weaving this into physical story-telling.

Robert Kronk is the Artistic Director and CEO of Flipside Circus (winner Gold Matilda Award 2024) and is a co-founder and director of debase (winner Gold Matilda Award 2018). He was director of programming and director of operations at Metro Arts until 2008.

He has worked extensively as a dramaturg, writer, director, and producer for companies including; La Boite, Brisbane Festival, Queensland Theatre, HotHouse Theatre, and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre.

He is an award winning writer whose credits include: All Other Places (2000), Lovejunk (2001), Snagged (published by Playlab 2009), Ithaca Road (nominated for an AWGIE Award and published by Playlab 2009), Fly-In Fly-Out (2012) (shortlisted for the 2012 Rodney Seaborn Award and published by Playlab 2014), We That Are Left (nominated for an AWGIE Award 2016), and The Longest Minute with Nadine McDonald-Dowd commissioned by Queensland Theatre and JUTE (winner 2018 Matilda Award for best mainstage production) and We Live Here (winner 2018 Matilda Award for best circus/physical theatre).

Liz Skitch is a performer, theatre maker and writer whose work spans physical comedy, stand up comedy, clown, cabaret and contemporary theatre. She is a co-founder and director of debase and has toured co-authored debase works throughout Australia and internationally, including seasons in the UK, Japan and China.

Since relocating to Victoria, Liz has created and toured several acclaimed solo works, including Mothermorphosis, Spoilt, Skitch Tease and Down the Back of the Couch.

Popping Lead Balloons is based on Liz’s lived experience at a private girls’ school in Brisbane and explores the dark art of teenage girl politics, where friendships are currency, alliances shift overnight and a well-timed rumour can be devastatingly effective.

Liz’s latest work, Down the Back of the Couch, recently enjoyed an acclaimed season at Melbourne Fringe and will soon play Brisbane in July.

A co-production between Assembly of Elephants and debase

Assembly of Elephants (AoE) creates new performance work in live theatre, digital capture and audio. We seek out challenging ideas that speak to our times, explore these ideas in workshops, make the work live, and capture it digitally for release along with comprehensive wellbeing and learning support material. AoE collaborates with social justice organisations to build a deeply-informed and authentic performance ecosystem: artist-created and student-created theatre that triggers social questions and embraces social change.

debase productions creates new comic performance for theatre, telling stories of Australia to Australia and the world.

We believe theatre is for everyone. We believe theatre should not take itself too seriously. We believe theatre is a dialogue between makers and audiences. It should never be a monologue. We believe theatre can be a place for black and white artists to come together to dream the future.

Thanks

Huge gratitude to Queensland Theatre Company, Shirley's Creative Community Space, and Andrew Mills.

This project is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.

Proudly supported by Redland City Council through the Redlands Performing Arts Centre.