Cut Chilli

By Chenturan Aran

12 – 23 August, 2026

Darebin Speakeasy

No one leaves the table until someone tells the truth.

“Your face is an ancestral mountain, carved by mothers who dreamed you beyond their lifetime.” 

Jamie was abandoned as a baby in Sri Lanka. At least that’s what Katherine told him, as she raised him in the beach town of Mandurah, Western Australia. But when Jamie falls for Zahra, an activist and podcaster who tells him about the shady history of international adoption, he begins to question his adoptive mother’s narrative and wonders why he’s never seen his adoption file. 

Now Jamie’s heading home, with a cultural lineage demanding to be felt and a determination to uncover the truth of his past, all the while with Zahra recording live for her podcast series, “Decolonising My Boyfriend”. The truth, however, is more complicated than expected, and Katherine fights to cover up an old wound being opened, one that will reshape their family forever. 

Nominated at the 2025 NSW Literary Prizes, this scorching new comedy from Chenturan Aran is a banquet of cultural identity, displacement and ancestry. Inspired by pervasive adoption fraud in Sri Lanka, this is a play about difficult histories, and how we manage open dialogue to find vulnerability, truth, and acceptance. 

Writer - Chenturan Aran

Director - Isabella Vadiveloo

Producer - Briannah Davis 

Set and Costume Design - Ishan Vivekanantham

Lighting Design - Lana Rosalea

Sound Design - Nick Rinaldi

Stage Manager - Noemie Huttner-Koros

Promotional image - Gregory Lorenzutti

Production stills - Sarah Walker

Cast

Indra Liyanaarachchi

Anna Kaleeda

Alexandra Sangster

Ben Grant

Soren Jensen

Aarati Ilanko