ballkids (or, scenes from a friendship)

09 OCTOBER 2024 – 13 OCTOBER 2024 | LA MAMA COURTHOUSE

A love letter to best friendship from acclaimed indie theatre artists VIMH.

Holly and Sam are the best of the best. Or they want to be. They share a dream – to join the most elite squad in competitive summer sport: ballkids at the Australian Open. It’s their first day of training and they don’t know yet that they’re not going to make the cut or that they’re going to meet their best friend for the first time ever.

Ballkids takes this chance encounter and chucks it in a blender, jump-cutting through the next two decades of Holly and Sam’s shared life to map the starburst force of platonic romance.

Funny and moving, excruciatingly human, Ballkids (or, scenes from a friendship) is an ode to lonely kids and what happens when they find each other. Written by Liv Satchell (two-time Green Room Award winner) for Izabella Yena and Michelle McCowage and directed by Julian Dibley-Hall (The View From Up Here), Ballkids insists that friendship is as strong and important as a beating heart. 

This season of Ballkids was nominated for Best Theatre and awarded Best New Writing, supported by Melbourne Theatre Company, at the 2024 Melbourne Fringe Festival Awards. It was also the co-winner of the 2024 Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award. It was nominated for Best Production at the 2025 Green Room Awards and won Best New Writing for Independent Theatre.

This project was proudly supported by the City of Darebin’s Community Grants Program and the Robert Salzer Foundation.