Unbecoming

Welcome to your post-death afterglow. Due to the nature of your death you are permitted one haunting within the limited time period of your unbecoming, the duration of which is unknown.

Ado wakes up dead. And rotting. Pretty soon she can walk through walls, read people’s minds, and travel through time, and she is fucking killing it. Now that she’s dead and free of all the expectations everyone has of teenage girls she can finally do what she wants. Except… all she wants now is to solve the mystery of her own death. As a ghostly dead girl in the process of her unbecoming, Ado doesn’t have long before she will be gone completely: how will she choose to use her last chance to interact with humanity, her one-time-only haunting?

Unbecoming is a one-woman play about our obsession with the “dead girl” and what it means for that girl when she actually ends up dead. According to Edgar Allan Poe “the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world;” this time the dead girl finally speaks for herself.

Unbecoming premiered in Canberra, Australia, presented by ETC Productions, Canberra Theatre Centre, March 2019

“Delivering Petocz’s complex monologue through its sometimes impressionistic, often surreal twists and turns, the talented Isabel Burton, in her professional debut, hits every note… The force of the writing hits me immediately.” Arne Sjostedt, CityNews

“The writing’s sharp and Isobel Burton’s performance is right to the point.  She shows us a no nonsense young woman dealing with post death trauma in a feeling but intelligent way.” Alanna Maclean, Canberra Critics Circle

Playwright & Director - Cathy Petőcz / Lighting Design - Anthony Arblaster / Sound Design - Cilt (Hannah de Feyter & Becki Whitton) / Dramaturgy by Gin Savage / Starring Isabel Burton

Poster image by Thorson Photography / Show documentation by Shelly Higgs (Click image for more photos)