A journey to oneself: EQUALS to feature at Midsumma
As a part of the annual Midsumma festival, a production more than two years in the making EQUALS by Cynda Beare invites locals to a duologue about identity issues, self-love and trying to understand the big city life.
Two young people moved from a small town in regional North Queensland to the big city of Naarm (Melbourne). What does that feel like?
Together, they try to find out how to survive being locked in a share house bathroom at a bad party.
“It is a lot about very universal concerns that young people have in those kinds of situations,” writer and director Cynda Beare said.
Dating, love, racism, transgender experiences, re-evaluation of who you are will all be discussed.
What the two protagonists find out exactly can be discovered by experiencing the play presented from January 27 to February 2 daily from 9pm to 10pm at Carlton’s The Motley Bauhaus.
The production is a short comedy carrying its audience with open honesty, brutal sarcasm, and queer black humour.
“It needed to be funny,” Cynda told Inner City News.
If it was not a comedy, it would be a sad, sad play and nobody wants to watch a sad, sad play.
Creating this play took months according to Cynda, who graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Theatre) at Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) and started writing it two years ago just for themselves.
Cynda said that an initial run of a much shorter version of the play was previously performed at the MUSE Festival.
“It was really popular, which is why we have extended it.”
The two actresses, Annabel Hunter and Elistera Biernoff-Glies, both Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) graduates at VCA, have been part of this play from the beginning.
“I was writing the characters, and I knew those two people could do that,” Cynda said. “And, since they have been a part of it throughout the whole development, the characters became very them.”
“I am a very chill director. I always want to hear the objective opinions of other people. And Annabel and Ellie have great chemistry on stage. A lot of the time, what I wrote was not meant to be funny, but then they said it, and I was like, ‘this is actually funny’.”
Cynda said it was “the project that I am the proudest of in the entire world.”
“It is not just because of what I have done for it, but for the team involved and the love that has been poured into this,” adding that it was important for everyone to see, especially young queer people who had just moved to Naarm and had no idea what was going on “just like I was.”
Ticket prices for EQUALS range from $15 to $24. A discounted ticket is available for transgender audience members. •
Image: by Tiah Bullock.

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