Caleb Lewis
Creative / Writing

Bio

WRITER – STAGE & SCREEN | GAME DESIGNER

Caleb Lewis is a multi-award-winning playwright, theatremaker, and experience designer.

His plays include: Cathedral; Nailed; Men, Love, and the Monkeyboy; Dogfall; Death in Bowengabbie; Rust and Bone; Songs for the Deaf; Bluebottles; Crystal; Aleksander and the Robot Maid; The Honey Bees; In a Dark Dark Wood; Six Million Hits; The River at the End of the Road; Maggie Stone; and Clinchfield, which won the inaugural Richard Burton Award for New Plays.

Screen credits include Mortal Coil (in development) and Savvy TV.

Games, installations and interactive entertainments include:  Exclusion Zone; Across a Crowded Room; Half an Hour Visit; and the multi-platform If There Was A Colour Darker Than Black I’d Wear It – Winner of the 2013 Ruby Award for Innovation. Recently, he was commission to create an interactive live ‘experience’ for the World Expo in Dubai.

Previously a resident artist at Griffin Theatre, Australia’s premier new writing theatre, Lewis was mentored by Nick Enright (Blackrock, Lorenzo’s Oil) and Edward Albee (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?). He was the winner of an Inscription Award, the Phillip Parsons’ Award (in absentia), and the inaugural AWGIE (Australian Writers’ Guild Award) for Digital Narrative.

Caleb’s work has been commissioned and produced by Bell Shakespeare, Black Swan Theatre Company (WA), State Theatre Company of South Australia, and numerous large and and small companies across the country as well as overseas. His current projects include commissions for  The State Theatre Company of South Australia, Hothouse (VIC), Sport for Jove (NSW), as well as a triptych of interactive projects for the series Uncertain Playgrounds.

As part of the BATCH FESTIVAL  at Griffin Theatre, Caleb presented Unkiss Me, “an intimate, participatory art-game for two that invites players to consider how a relationship is built on shared memories, and what happens when one comes to an end…”

 

PRAISE:

“Lewis’s graphic and luminous script is rich with metaphors and some of the most evocative writing imaginable; it is a logophile’s dream. Dotted with humour, the interweaving plots all orbit around our protagonist like so many bubbles escaping from a scuba tank. Like its namesake, the structure of this play is grand, informative and magnificent. As the story cycles back from whence it came, it feels like we have undertaken a rite of passage; a pass to the denouement of the story. The entry has scant regard for our comfort and the reactions are visceral. It is brilliant.”

There is a gentle but quintessential Australianism about this production and it provides comfort in the steadiness of its charm, when the water beneath us is abysmal. Lessons in bravery and camaraderie juxtapose “dying by degrees” and ultimately, there is an overarching message of hope for plights universal. Vicariously, Cathedral has the ability to attach a floatation device to dark troubles and let gravity do the heavy lifting.”  – LIMELIGHT (Cathedral) ★★★★★

 

WEBSITE: caleb-lewis.com

Reviews

    "It is an outstanding piece of theatre; edgy, touching, relatable and funny - not one to miss!" (Destroyer of Worlds)

    Barefoot Review

    "Lewis's dense, lyrical writing and elliptical approach to a familiar scenario make for a captivating 60 minutes." (Destroyer of Worlds)
    Crikey

    "A really talented Australian playwright, really playing with performance form. Great!" (Destroyer of Worlds)

    Radio Adelaide

    "The complex strands of action are impressively woven together by the playwright..." (Clinchfield)
    The West Australian

    Caleb won the The Richard Burton Award for New Plays - for Clinchfield in 2010

    "Lewis has an excellent aptitude for believable dialogue and a brilliant understanding of emotional counterpoint..." (The Honey Bees)
    Limelight

    “I am convinced Lewis marks the appearance of a significant new talent.”
    The Sun Herald

    "Lewis’s graphic and luminous script is rich with metaphors and some of the most evocative writing imaginable; it is a logophile’s dream." (Cathedral)
    ★★★★★ - Limelight

    "Cathedral is surely a highlight of State’s 2022 season. It is among the best and most assured of Lewis’s works to date and deserves to tour widely. It has all the markings of a South Australian classic." (Cathedral)
    - InDaily

    "He is a modern-day poet who puts me in mind of Dylan Thomas in the way he breathes life into words for the actor to use....leaves us breathless with the wonder of the world Lewis has created with his deft and accurate text." (Cathedral)
    ★★★★★ - Glam Adelaide

    "He has an ear for the manners and anxieties of contemporary Australia." (Dogfall)
    - The Australian

    "Poetic and heartfelt, tender and brave… This is honest, authentic storytelling, beautifully written." (Dogfall)
    - Aussie Theatre

    "Extraordinary - imaginative, lyrical and heartfelt with a nightmarish imagery that suggests Ionesco at his most absurdly bleak and Donny Darko at its most cogent." (Dogfall)

    - The Adelaide Review