Reasons to be Invisible

by Lab Kelpie

An uplifting and interactive adventure about friendship, courage and finding your voice – and having fun doing it!

Recipient of the 2023 Joan and Betty Rayner ACTF Commission

Sophie is as quiet as a mouse. She blends into the background. Nobody ever seems to notice her. No one sees her, hears her, or thinks about her. And that’s OK with Sophie because the truth is: she likes being invisible! 

Because you can’t be hurt, or embarrassed, or sad if you’re invisible, right?! 

New kid CJ is all the things Sophie doesn’t want to be. They stand out. They don’t fit in. And they’re embarrassing – like, really embarrassing! But unlike Sophie, CJ doesn’t care that they’re weird. Weird is better than quiet, right?! 

But to Sophie’s surprise, she notices bits of CJ keep vanishing… piece by piece. Their loud, goofy laugh. Their terrible dance moves. Their voice.  

Because what CJ really needs is a friend. A real friend. Or they might completely disappear and become… invisible.  

Just like Sophie… 

Students engaged with the themes of friendship, self-esteem, and identity as they embarked on this adventure with Sophie and CJ striving to make the invisible visible, the impossible possible – and finding the courage to save each other from disappearing. 

The play is as interactive as teachers and students want it to be, with pre-visit crafts and visual art activities, and/or opportunity to pair it with a dress-up day! Additionally, students will see how a story can be told with variety and accessible magic – sound effects, live music, singing, dance, special effects, objects and props, and stage tricks – everything your students need to generate exciting discussion and their own creative responses back in the classroom. 

In playwright Katy Warner and director Lyall Brooks, Lab Kelpie have two established professional theatre practitioners with strong, award-winning track records. This new work sees Katy and Lyall reunited following their successful creative collaboration on A Prudent Man, which won the Audience Choice Award from over 400 productions at the 2016 Melbourne Fringe Festival, went on to tour Australia and New Zealand from 2017 to 2019, and now enjoys regular incursions into Victorian secondary schools.