It’s safe to say that the world might not be altogether as peachy as our parents, teachers and bank manager promised it would be. Sometimes, things don’t go as planned, and occasionally, the universe has a way of letting us know we’re simply not welcome. Darwin playwright Mary Anne Butler’s debut full-length play ‘Half Way There’ is about Harriet, who has found a way of gathering up what she has and continuing her life even though it’s not what she’d hoped it might be.

Harriet has been holed up in Half Way – a town which is 200km either side of anything. “You can drive that way for a day and not meet another vehicle,” explains Mary Anne, who was influenced to write the play based on a night spent in a regional homestead. “I became intrigued about what would motivate anyone to live so remotely, and in such a small place. And my answer to that is that Harriet is hiding from something. In this case, her past, which has locked her down in grief.” Yet Half Way There is a comedy.

“It’s about how we move through grief,” Mary Anne surmises. “How some people get stuck in grief for half a lifetime, and – ultimately – it’s a story of hope, in terms of there being something moving us on”.

The play itself revolves around the town pub, a former brothel, owned by Harriet and her mate Wes. When developer Sabrina heads into town with a vision of progress – a vision of the modern age – ghosts are unearthed and Harriet is forced to come to terms with her own reason for being there. “It also touches on the ‘old’ world versus the ‘new’, in that it is set in a part of Australia which is entrenched in mythology, where your word or a handshake were as good as a written contract,” explains Mary Anne. “And the fact that at some point this turned – accountability, contracts, things having to be in writing – so there is a sense of betrayal for the old guard.” Top End audiences will find many themes in the play which revolve around issues that confront their own community every day.

Half Way There is a collaborative production between Darwin’s Knock-em-Down Theatre, JUTE Theatre in Cairns, Darwin Theatre Company and the Darwin Festival. All four partners have committed considerable funds and ‘in-kind’ support towards the production. “This has been fabulous for me as a local writer, because there is no way that such things can happen up here without this sort of collaboration. The combined resources mean that as well as being part of Darwin Festival, the play gets an interstate 9-week tour, and that’s just wicked. It has also been shortlisted for some national initiatives – which has given me a big boost, and fed into my confidence in terms of my belief in Half way There, and also in terms of writing the next one!”