Overview

"A riotous comedy of errors possessing elements of The Big Chill, Wake In Fright, and Lord of the Flies...""A riotous comedy of errors possessing elements of The Big Chill, Wake In Fright, and Lord of the Flies. Every year from Xmas to New Years Day an group of friends go camping on North Stradbroke (Mingerriba) an Island paradise just 30k from the Queensland coast. Every year they have a fabulous time surfing, eating, drinking and playing 'Bastard Ball'. Unfortunately, this is the year of the Big Wet and their camp is soon wrecked and flooded by an intense tropical low. Their cars are ruined, leaving them stranded, the food is spoiled, and only beer is left to fuel their increasing stress at being cut off. As serious hunger kicks in, things go rapidly down hill. They mistakenly ingest some hallucinogenic mushrooms and in the fog of madness that follows a rare blue koala is impaled on a beach umbrella. When contact with the outside world is restored most of them resolve to return next year - knowing full well this will never happen."

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"""A riotous comedy of errors possessing elements of The Big Chill, Wake In Fright, and Lord of the Flies...Performances from the cast had the audience in hysterics throughout the evening."" Southern Cross ""A fine comic script. The first half is like a burlesque, eighties version of Michael Gow's Away. The second half is a Gothic, mushroom-induced nightmare. This is in my opinion, the comedy of the year."" Chris Boyd, The Melbourne Times. ""Part of the glee with which the audiences can watch this show is that it's them and not us having to suffer through this abominably awful experience. Davies and the cast obviously had a lot of fun putting the show together."" Jennifer Ellison The Bulletin. ""On Shifting Sandshoes is a fine and light hearted piece of Australian theatre by Paul Davies, thorough, hilarious and delightful."" Footscray Mail ""On Shifting Sandshoes is one in an impressive line of clever satirical comedies by TheatreWorks stalwart, Paul Davies. Arguably the funniest show in town at the moment, it concerns an oddly assorted sextet which takes its Christmas and New Year holidays each year on Stradbroke Island. As pre-Christmas farce it works pretty well."" Geoffrey Milne The Australian Financial Review ""It is in part about the rituals and pecking orders, while exploring the way in which stress can rip away the superficial veil of civility. When things go wrong the stress begins to corrode each person's character."" Melbourne Herald. ""TheatreWorks have done it again! A laugh-a-minute call of the wild in Paul Davies'camping epic On Shifting Sandshoes. It's exceptionally well cast with superb performances. Paul Davies is developing into a major comic satirist and his plays are always worth seeing. I challenge anyone not to enjoy this latest offering."" The Melbourne Report."

A riotous comedy of errors possessing elements of The Big Chill, Wake In Fright, and Lord of the Flies...Performances from the cast had the audience in hysterics throughout the evening. Southern Cross A fine comic script. The first half is like a burlesque, eighties version of Michael Gow's Away. The second half is a Gothic, mushroom-induced nightmare. This is in my opinion, the comedy of the year. Chris Boyd, The Melbourne Times. Part of the glee with which the audiences can watch this show is that it's them and not us having to suffer through this abominably awful experience. Davies and the cast obviously had a lot of fun putting the show together. Jennifer Ellison The Bulletin. On Shifting Sandshoes is a fine and light hearted piece of Australian theatre by Paul Davies, thorough, hilarious and delightful. Footscray Mail On Shifting Sandshoes is one in an impressive line of clever satirical comedies by TheatreWorks stalwart, Paul Davies. Arguably the funniest show in town at the moment, it concerns an oddly assorted sextet which takes its Christmas and New Year holidays each year on Stradbroke Island. As pre-Christmas farce it works pretty well. Geoffrey Milne The Australian Financial Review It is in part about the rituals and pecking orders, while exploring the way in which stress can rip away the superficial veil of civility. When things go wrong the stress begins to corrode each person's character. Melbourne Herald. TheatreWorks have done it again! A laugh-a-minute call of the wild in Paul Davies'camping epic On Shifting Sandshoes. It's exceptionally well cast with superb performances. Paul Davies is developing into a major comic satirist and his plays are always worth seeing. I challenge anyone not to enjoy this latest offering. The Melbourne Report.

Author Information

Paul Davies is an award winning screenwriter, script editor and playwright who sharpened his quill on over a hundred episodes of Teledrama from classic Crawford series such as Homicide (1974-5), The Box (1975-76) The Sullivans (1976-78) and Skyways (1979), to Rafferty's Rules (1985), Blue Heelers (1997), Pacific Drive (1996), Stingers (1998-2003), Something in the Air (1999-2001) and Headland (2005). He also helped spark the site-specific performance revolution in Melbourne in the 1980s with TheatreWorks' production of his first play Storming Mont Albert By Tram (1982). What became known as The Tram Show played across a dozen years to packed trams in both Melbourne and Adelaide, travelling a total distance that would have taken the show halfway round the world. Its success lead to an outbreak of 'location theatre' in Melbourne throughout the 1980s including three other plays in real places: Breaking Up In Balwyn (1983, on a riverboat), Living Rooms (1986, in an historic mansion) and Full House/No Vacancies (1989, in a boarding house). These works became the subject of his thesis Really Moving Drama. Both The Tram Show and On Shifting Sandshoes (1988) were awarded AWGIES, along with Return of The Prodigal (2000) an episode of Something In The Air (ABC). Paul co-wrote the feature Neil Lynn with David Baker in 1984, and the docu-fiction Exits (1980) with Pat Laughren and Carolyn Howard. His novel, 33 Postcards From Heaven was published by Gondwana Press in 2005. Numerous articles, reviews, stories and interviews have been published in Metro, Cinema Papers, Cantrill's Filmnotes, Australasian Drama Studies, Community Theatre In Australia, The Macquarie Companion to the Australian Media and Theatre Research International (Cambridge University). He co-wrote three documentaries with John Hughes (All That Is Solid, Traps and One Way Street) as well as Holy Rollers with Rosie Jones. Paul has also given courses in literature and creative writing at various colleges and universities including: Southern Cross, James Cook and Melbourne State.

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