• Site Map
• Campus Map
• A-Z Index
• Staff Intranet
• Contacts

FCA performance presents

Osama the Hero

Written by Dennis Kelly
Directed by Mark Rogers BCA (Dean’s Scholar)

“You’re a dirty f#%$king liar Gary, hit him in the face with that hammer”

When Gary, an outsider, writes a paper for English class entitled Osama the Hero, the frazzled occupants of his council estate suddenly have a target for all their pent up aggression. The schoolboy becomes the face of the faceless enemy, international terrorism dressed in shorts and a tie.

The police were on guard for the premiere of this provocatively titled work at the Hampstead Theatre in London. It examines one of the most insidious consequences of living with terror - its capacity to incite violence in its victims. Living in an oppressive atmosphere of fear may mean that nerves fray and anger accelerates. Under such circumstances something brutal is bound to happen.

"Osama the Hero is about people putting two and two together and coming up with five," says Kelly. "Logic takes a holiday, and that's what happened during the Iraq War.”

UK playwright Dennis Kelly has been described as a “talent to disturb”. His darkly comic examinations of contemporary experience explore violence on a personal scale and have been described variously as brutally realistic or nightmarishly surreal.

Director Mark Rogers BCA (Dean’s Scholar) was most recently assistant director on Arabian Nights directed by Tim Maddock. In Osama the Hero, Roger’s debut production as director, he works with third year performance students in a work described by the Telegraph UK as “upsetting and unforgettable”.

Season: Thursday 25 – Saturday 27 June 2009 @ 8PM
Venue: Performance Space, 25.168, University of Wollongong
Booking number: 02 4221 4889
Tickets: $20 full/ $12 Conc/ $8 FCA Student