Fair Play

Australian premiere

Fair Play is a blistering, urgent two-hander about ambition, friendship, and the brutal cost of elite sport. Set in the high-pressure world of competitive middle-distance running, the play follows teenage athletes Ann and Sophie as they train, race, and grow up together — until success, scrutiny, and institutional power threaten to tear them apart.

Written by acclaimed British playwright Ella Road (The Phlebotomist), Fair Play interrogates gender, race, bodily autonomy, and fairness in sport, drawing on real-world debates around eligibility, identity, and who gets to decide what a “level playing field” really is.

Directed by Emma Whitehead in its Australian Premiere, this electrifying production fuses rapid-fire dialogue with physical storytelling to deliver a gripping, emotionally charged work that speaks far beyond the track. At once a coming-of-age story and a political provocation, Fair Play asks a vital contemporary question: what do we sacrifice in the name of winning?