Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone is a wonderfully strange comedy about what happens when our attempts to connect with each other become tangled up with the technology that's supposed to make connection easier.
It's funny, absurd and occasionally downright peculiar, but there's something beautifully human underneath it all: grief, loneliness, love, the stories we tell about people after they're gone, and the things we wish we'd said while they were still here.
October 23 – 1 November
Performances
- Friday 23 Oct 6:30pm
- Saturday 24 Oct 6:30pm
- Sunday 25 Oct 2:00pm
- Wednesday 28 Oct 7:00pm
- Thursday 29 Oct 7:00pm
- Friday 30 Oct 7:00pm
- Saturday 31 Oct 7:00pm
- Sunday 1 Nov 2:00pm
Partners
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Ballaarat Mechanics Institute
Performance Venue
Ballaarat Mechanics Institute - Minerva Room
Accessibility information can be found here.
117-119 Sturt St, Ballarat Central VIC 3350
About the Director
Benj Beatty
219. That’s how many unplayed voicemails I have.
One is from a man who died a day later. We never met but his ghost lives on my phone. It’s been a year and to listen now would seem like desecrating a grave. So it stays, hidden amongst the voices of the living. If I listened, would he know? If I left a message, what would I say?
Exploring this blurring of the lines between the heard and the unseen, how technology connects us as humans while robbing us of our humanity, is why I’m excited to be bringing Dead Man’s Cell Phone to BNT.
Benj is a local actor and director, and is also the current President of BNT. In 2026, he directed Checked Out at the Creswick Twelve Minute Play Festival, winning the Audience Choice for Best Play. Dead Man’s Cell Phone is his full length directorial debut.
Benj has been involved as an actor in multiple productions in Ballarat and surrounds with a variety of local theatre companies. He has performed several times with BNT, in Wyrd Sisters (2023), A Date With Death (2024), Dancing at Lughnasa (2024) and God of Carnage (2026).
Cast
Chantal Amber
Chantal Amber is an actor and graduate of Federation University’s Arts Academy, with a Bachelor of Acting for Stage and Screen. She is a founding member of theatre ensemble The Story Keepers, creating and performing imaginative theatre for families across four Melbourne seasons, including at La Mama, Bluestone Church Arts Space and the State Library of Victoria. Chantal is also the Bookings and Administration Lead at The Rat Lab and Coordinator of its Ignite! program.
Tim Constantine
Tim Constantine is a multi-award-winning actor with more than 20 years’ experience across theatre, film and television. His stage credits include Betrayal, Angels in America, Doubt, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and The Judas Kiss, while screen appearances include Neighbours, Underbelly and City Homicide. Tim recently appeared as Alan in BNT’s God of Carnage and returns to play the rather different brothers Gordon and Dwight.
Laura Edmondson
Laura Edmondson has been part of Ballarat theatre since childhood, performing with Ballarat Lyric Theatre, BLOC Music Theatre, Creswick Theatre Company, MAYTE Youth Theatre and The BallaRat Pack. Her credits include Iolanthe, Trial by Jury, Cats, Rent, The Mikado, Xanadu, The Phantom of the Opera and Mary Poppins. After plenty of musical theatre, Laura was drawn back to a non-singing role by the prospect of having a whole lot of fun with Hermia.
Melissa Lawrence
Melissa Lawrence graduated from Federation University’s Arts Academy with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting in 2018. She has since performed with Bard in Buninyong in classical works including Clytemnestra, Dangerous Liaisons and Shakespeare. Melissa made her BNT debut as Annette in God of Carnage and was drawn to Dead Man’s Cell Phone by the confidence and mystery of The Other Woman.
Fiona Reilly
Fiona Reilly holds a Bachelor of Education in Drama and Dance and a Master of Fine Arts in Performance. Before moving to Ballarat, she performed with Encore Theatre Company, The Launceston Players and Three River Theatre Company in Tasmania. Her roles include Martha in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Fiona was particularly attracted to the sassy, funny and thoroughly inappropriate Mrs Gottlieb.
Faith Stanes
Faith Stanes is an emerging young performer currently studying through Phoenix P-12 Community College’s Academy of the Arts. She has performed in the school’s production of The Wizard of Oz JR and is currently involved in its Academy of the Arts show. Having first heard about Dead Man’s Cell Phone at school two years ago, Faith jumped at the opportunity to be involved and joins the production as both ensemble member and Assistant Director.