Betty is a Butcher Tickets

Five characters, five reasons to live, an odyssey towards death. A collage of memory, these characters jostle for existence in a theatrical phantasmagoria.

BETTY IS A BUTCHER is a black comedy that captures the fragility and savagery of relationships, the need for love and the power of family. In dramatising the act of waiting and capturing the emptiness of communication, BETTY IS A BUTCHER explores what defines us and asks what power we have to shape our destiny.

An unmissable debut play written and performed by Thomas Campbell and directed by Kate Gaul, BETTY IS A BUTCHER is filled with dark humour, pathos and unsettling personal narrative.

"Betty tells me that I’m a dog person, not a cat person and that if I was a cat person she wouldn’t look at me twice. She tells me she loves my stomach and I believe her. That she loves the sound of my snoring and when I toss and turn in bed she pretends she’s a convict on a ship travelling to Australia. Betty cries tears of rainbow water. Betty is a unicorn."

"Betty is a Butcher dishes up compelling performances and necessarily theatrical moments that are equal parts sophisticated and silly. It’s a joy. It’s a little disturbing. It’s worth seeing." - Nick Atkins, Director New Work Penrith Performing & Visual Arts

"A sublime, brutal waltz into a complex tapestry of humanity from the deep heart and warped mind of transmutable artiste Thomas Campbell. Firmly guided by the assured and effervescent gaze of director Kate Gaul, Betty is a Butcher is equal part love song and devastating sabre strike, where one emerges grateful for existence and in awe of difference." - Eliza Logan

"It's rare to witness a performer so effortlessly teeter between the tender and the absurd but this is exactly what Thomas Campbell does in Betty is a Butcher - a deeply personal work that is laugh out loud funny, deeply uncomfortable, strangely familiar and often very moving. Thomas' 5 very different characters reflect on themes of family, grief and intergenerational trauma. Oh ... and cupcakes." - Lauren Richardson

Writer/Performer: Thomas Campbell

Producer/Director: Kate Gaul

Associate Producer: Lily Hayman

Stage Manager: Domenic Hort

Lighting Design: Victor Kalka

Original Composition/Sound Design: Nate Edmondson

Dramaturg: Robyn McLevy