With a buzzing Zeppelin-style airship disturbing her tranquility and A-list nursing home brochures piling up, life teems with uneasy choices for widowed “Grey Boomer” Helen. She finds companionship in her pet raven, Rabindranath, and solace in gardening and reading the secret journals of her dead wife Coral.
Helen daydreams of underwater escapes, an LSD-fuelled respite from reality, as the couple’s past activism comes back to haunt them. There are regular, unwelcome visits from the Bureau of Unaustralian Activities. When Rabindranath returns one night splattered with blood, Helen makes a shocking discovery on the harbour shores with headline-making implications.
CREDITS
THE NEXT 5 MINUTES is written and directed by Ian Walker, based on the 1990s unpublished novella - Australia Who by Joanne Burns.
Starring Helen O’Connor as Helen. Eliane Davis Morel as Coral. Lauren Hamilton-Neil as Jace Tapsell. Paul Barry as Doug The TV News Anchor. Elizabeth Kulas as Reporter Judith Dengate. Tommy Steele as Sky Bowl Pilot.
You also heard Jordan Olivier and Nic Starte.
Our sound designer is Martin Gallagher. Music written and performed by Elina Godwin. Podcast art by Lauryn Evans. Executive Producers are Bronwyn Mehan and Pariya Taherzadeh.
The show is a co-production between SPINELESS WONDERS, ECHIDNA AUDIO and EAR CANDY MEDIA.
Big thanks to Create NSW, Petria Wallace, Elizabeth Kulas and Fyona Smith.
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