Before the Meeting

Seymour Centre and White Box Theatre will present the Australian premiere of Adam Bock’s remarkable new play, Before the Meeting.

Every day in an old church basement, Gail and the regular members of her early morning group set up for their meeting in the exact same way: Nicole makes the coffee, Gail arranges the chairs, and Ron complains.  

Together, the little group is forging a path towards sobriety and wellbeing – but when Gail’s estranged granddaughter reopens old wounds, Gail knows it will take more than coffee, chairs, and companionship to keep her life from falling apart. 

Praised by The New York Times for its expert, high-octane naturalism, Before the Meeting is a deeply realistic examination of the cost of addiction and the effort it takes to stay clean, taking audiences on a rollercoaster ride of painful personal history, of grief, love, recovery and the mantras of AA.  

A sensation at the prestigious Williamstown Theatre Festival, where many great plays start life, and awarded an Edgerton Foundation new play prize in 2019, this brilliant new work is a coup for Seymour Centre’s season program, following the smash-hit success of recent productions including Ulster American and Heroes of the Fourth Turning. 

From a unique voice in contemporary playwriting, Before the Meeting is an extraordinary drama about ordinary lives, a raw, haunting, wryly funny look at what it means to live with and recover from addiction.