AMAH AND NANNA

Family is what you make it…

The winner of the 2026 Patrick White Playwrights Award, Amah and Nanna sees Aussie entertainment grand dames Annette Shun Wah (Floating Life, Eat Carpet) and Gold Logie-winner Lynne McGranger (Home and Away) as two women from very different worlds who realise they have a lot in common.

When Nanna brings her infant grandson along to a political rally and the tyke is photographed in a Southern Cross baby sling, her daughter swiftly cuts off all contact. Nanna is devastated and angry, and the yapping dog owned by her next-door neighbour isn’t helping. While “seeing to” the mutt, she’s sprung by Amah (Shun Wah) – a Thai Chinese woman around the same age – who is dealing with her own family challenges.

Written by Disapol Savetsila – who was the youngest playwright ever programmed at Sydney Theatre Company with 2017’s Australian Graffiti – and directed by Darren Yap (Miracle City, Letters to Lindy), this urgently relevant and darkly comic thriller follows two vivacious seniors as they embark on a very unlikely friendship and a cross-country road trip toward self-discovery and the Red Centre. Savetsila explores identity, tolerance, grievance politics and belonging in Australia, threaded through with his trademark heart and humour, and in gripping fashion.

Like Thelma and Louise before them, Amah and Nanna light out for the great unknown while forces beyond their control swirl in the desert air, taking audiences on the ride of a lifetime.