Cherry Smoke by James McManus

After their sold-out season of the Australian premiere of Natives by Glen Waldron in 2021, Emily Buxton and Charlie Vaux are presenting their first show as newly founded production company, CrissCross Productions, at the new KXT on Broadway venue.

Alice Birbara joins the team after her 5-star critically acclaimed performance in Chef. 

On the outskirts of Pennsylvania, 9-year-old-Fish’s father throws him in to the boxing ring, leaving the weight of the weekly pay-packet on his shoulders.

Through the years, Fish becomes a deadly amateur fighter with a short fuse. Cherry wants nothing but to be with her love, Fish. His brother, Duffy, and his girlfriend, Bug, just want to live their lives without being dragged down by him. And Fish is terrified of becoming his father.

Is it all too much to ask? In this poetic and visceral drama that packs a punch, it’s a fight to change the life you know for the better. 

Cherry Smoke follows these four young kids trying to grow in to the adults that the society that neglected them will accept. We can try to build the dream, but at what cost? When you’re not taught to use your words but your fists can you ever truly change, or are you destined to repeat the past? 

“It’s about four lost kids building a home,” director Charlie Vaux says, “If you’ve ever needed to fight for love, and for change, this is the play for you.” 

This darkly funny and harrowing play is sure to stick with you once you leave the theatre; as Cherry says, “you can’t never get away from a girl blows cherry smoke.” 

CREATIVES 

Cast Alice Birbara, Fraser Crane, Tom Dawson, Meg Hyeronimus Writer James McManus Director Charlie Vaux Producer/Assistant Director Emily Buxton Marketing Coordinator/Second AD Tahlia Merlino Consensual Movement Coordinator Steven Ljubovic Set Designer Soham Apte Lighting Designer Jasmin Borovsky Sound Designer Johnny Yang Stage Manager Chris Starnwaski Dialect Coach Linda Nicholls-Gidley 

Content Information: adult themes, violence, death, references to sexual violence 

An amateur production by arrangement with ORiGiN Theatrical, on behalf of Samuel French Inc.