Highway of Lost Hearts: A musical road trip to the heart of things
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A woman. A dog. A campervan. And 4,500kms of wide-open road.
That’s the simple idea, embellished in a rich tapestry of music, which underpins Lingua Franca’s upcoming performance of Highway of Lost Hearts by Mary Anne Butler.
This regionally-made production features theatrical powerhouse Kate Smith and original music composed and performed by alt-country duo and Central West NSW icons, Smith & Jones – comprising Sophie Jones, and Abby Smith.
The story is half gritty road journey, half magic realism, and all heart.
Mot wakes up one morning to find that her heart is missing from her chest. She can breathe; she has a pulse—but she feels… nothing. So, she decides to go and look for it. With her dog enlisted as co-pilot, Mot heads down the Highway of Lost Hearts: into the deepest core of the Australian outback—navigating red dirt landscapes, fire and flood, brittle dryness, vast salt lakes, age-old mountains and murky waters filled with lost souls.
More than just live musicians, Smith & Jones become ethereal companions to Mot as she drives. Their music is perfectly aligned with Mary Anne Butler’s writing, part poetry, part road trip playlist, and engages lovers of music in the same vein as Paul Kelly, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings.
“A female-centred road journey is probably unique in Australian theatre and for Australian musicians – to think about what it means to be alone on the road, the kinds of challenges and beauty and amazing experiences encountered in that space,” says Abby.
“We had a lot of joy working on this, the script is so good,” says Kate.
“Mary Anne’s writing is incandescent, and we feel the music just elevates the magic.”
Director Adam Deusien said the play felt like “a love letter to regional Australia, and when you love something, you take it for all that it is – the rough edges, the joy and the light, the sadness and the wrongdoing and the suffering. And on Mot’s drive through the heart of the country as she searches for her own, we see it all: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly sublime.”
Lingua Franca is an independent professional performance company based in regional NSW which seeks to create urgent and provocative theatre driven by the values of rigour, inquisitiveness, candour and adventure. With a focus on new work, creating across theatre, dance, physical theatre, circus and multi-disciplinary collaborations, Lingua Franca presents live performance in regional and metropolitan contexts, sharing the quality of regional practice with local, national and international audiences.
Founded in Bathurst by Adam Deusien and Canberra’s Alison Plevey in 2012, the Central West NSW remains Lingua Franca’s regional home. With their artists also living and working across NSW, including in Canberra and region, and Newcastle and the Hunter, the company maintains a truly inter-regional practice.
Photography by Phil Blatch
THE ESSENTIALS
What: Lingua Franca’s production of Highway of Lost Hearts by Mary Anne Butler
Where: The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre
When: 7.30pm, 6 and 7 June (approximately 70 minutes, no interval)
Tickets: $30 – $59.90
Website: theq.net.au/whats-on/highway-of-lost-hearts
