The SHIT story
Source material
SHIT is adapted from the hit play SHIT which has had 8 seasons. Premiering at MTC, it played at the Sydney Arts Festival, the Darwin Festival, the 2019 Biennale Theatre Festival in Venice and the Edinburgh Fringe, winning the prestigious Summerhall Arts Lustrum Award. Written by one of Australia’s most celebrated playwrights, Patricia Cornelius. It has been met with extraordinary critical acclaim, winning 4 Green Room Awards and receiving a Helpmann Awards nomination for director Susie Dee. The film adaptation not only explores the narrative but also embraces the original cast who bring a savage authenticity to their roles and inhabit their characters with complexity and courage.
Praise for the play
“Ms. Dee and Ms. Cornelius are producing exactly the kind of work that audiences around the world are currently looking for.”
– The New York Times
“A portrait of damaged, toughened, young women who spit and swear and challenge prejudices.”
– The Scotsman
“SHIT is a vital piece of theatre, superbly constructed, brilliantly executed.”
– The Observer
☆☆☆☆ “Encapsulates emotional extremes with such precision that it leaves the audience shaken.”
– The List, Edinburgh
Synopsis
SHIT is a psychological drama which unfolds over one long night of incarceration in a bleak holding cell. Caged for hours on end, Billy, Bobby and Sam reveal their stories. Stories of a life time of violence, of abuse, of institutionalisation, told with unsentimental, sometimes comical, often gut-wrenching insight. They’ve done something terrible but all they’ve got to do is keep it together, to keep their mouths zipped. Sam has fallen apart and become a liability, the weak link. Billy and Bobby spend the night trying to hold tight, keeping them solid, a complete three, but life has finally caught up with them.
Earlier in the night they’d gone out to a party. The party turned sour. Billy deliberately caused a woman to be beaten to a pulp. Down in the mouth, they travel home. On the train they encounter a group of young men who laugh at them. They also encounter a young woman who is everything they’ve never been and they fixate on her. They follow her. There is no doubt they intend her harm.
They are incarcerated and face a night of isolation and fear of what will become of them. They’re right, they think, they’ll be fine, they think, no-one will discover they’ve committed a dreadful crime. They will stay together. Because what they fear most is to be separated.
The backstory
In March 2020, between the fires and the pandemic, a determined group of women found a three week window and decided to film SHIT. With the help of the Australian Cultural Fund and the support of family, friends and colleagues – many from the film and theatre industries – we raised enough to finance the initial shoot. With a lean but highly professional team, we worked long hours in difficult conditions and made a film to be proud of. The energy and fearless nature of this production can be felt on the screen. SHIT is a truly unique film with a strong independent voice.
The directors’ notes
– Trudy Hellier and Susie Dee
As directors we aimed to make a film that had a strong vision despite its very constrained budget. Early on we made some bold decisions that defined the tone for the film. We decided to set the main action in a slightly non-naturalistic space and to embrace its theatrical origins, rather than hide them as most adaptations endeavour to do. We wanted to highlight the brilliant performances, honed through the life of the play and allow much of the dialogue to remain, but we also needed to make it work as a cinematic experience.
We aimed to create a strong cinematic vision with the way it was shot, the colour palette, lenses, our choice of the main cage location and the exterior scenes.
These exterior scenes, primarily action sequences without dialogue, are not only used to convey the backstory but also punctuate the interior dialogue scenes and compel the narrative.
We worked very collaboratively with cinematographer Sky Davies to capture the tone, emotional intent and atmosphere. The rhythm of the film was brought together with editor Meri Blazevski and we worked with composer Anna Liebzeit on the original score and thrilling sound design as we went through the post-production phase.