On the 4th and 6th of April, Ballarat National Theatre proudly presented a public reading of This is the Way the World Ends, a new work written by BNT member Barry Kay. Performed in the intimate Humffray Room at the Ballarat Mechanics Institute, this special event was the culmination of a creative development process supported by BNT.

Over the past year, Barry has been developing the script with the encouragement and backing of the Ballarat National Theatre community. BNT provided a platform for Barry to explore, refine, and shape this work ready for the public reading, in the hope that it brings it closer to being ready for a performance. The result of Barry’s work is a bold collection of thematically connected short plays, character monologues, songs, and interludes — all woven together by a central concern for the loss of empathy, meaning, love, and connection in modern life.