All Of Us
UK PREMIER IN MARCH 2026 - production by Human Story Theatre
“For twelve years you’ve welcomed forgetting with open arms. And then the past comes calling and all your forgetting counts for nothing.”
As Oliver comes to the end of a prison sentence for the murder of his father twelve years earlier, he decides to try and reconnect with his mother, Clare, and sister, Eliza. His actions shatter their fragile equilibrium, compelling each member of the family to confront their conflicting versions of the past and the possibility for forgiveness.
All Of Us follows a family fractured and torn apart by domestic violence and incarceration. A revisioning of Sophocles' Electra, the play revolves around a mother-son-daughter triad, and explores the consequences of engrained cycles of domestic violence and toxic familial dynamics.
In place of the traditional Greek chorus standing on the sidelines, passively commenting on the action, there is now a restorative justice facilitator, who actively offers the other characters a chance to divert fate, not blindly repeat it.
In All Of Us I wanted to enact the different kinds of space that exist between people and within them, to show both the characters’ physical encounters and the meetings that only ever take place in their minds and hearts, consciously and unconsciously.
This is a play about one particular family, but it's also about the shifting spaces that exist between and within us all, the spaces where we can, hopefully, begin to encounter other ways of thinking and feeling about the past, and loosen its hold on our lives.
All Of Us received its world premiere in May 2023 in Te Wai Pounamu, the South Island of New Zealand.
The production was made possible thanks to financial support from the New Zealand Ministry of Justice, Borrin Foundation, Restorative Justice Nelson, and Creative Communities Tasman. With additional thanks to The Mint House, Oxford, U.K., and Donaldson Civil.
Audience Feedback:
"I was stunned by the play. I have never before seen anything like it. I loved how the story gradually came out and I loved how much of it was presented as people's thoughts. It was so cleverly put together."
“It’s the only thing (play, movie, etc) I’ve seen that really explores the complex journey for each person caught in this kind of situation.”
"We were both blown away. A difficult and complex subject was handled in a really thoughtful and compassionate way - we both learnt a lot!"
“It was all so real, a very clever play”
Director: Sharon Lukitau-Ngaamo
Producer: Miranda Warner
Cast: Sharon Lukitau-Ngaamo, Miranda Warner, Penny Taylor, Dawn Marron
Designer and illustrator: Isabelle Paine
Social Media: Oliver Martin at Mo Media
Lighting: Michael Gibbs
Photography: Nick Gastrell
Stage Hand: Mark Rutledge
Tami Mansfield, Theatreview, May 2023:
“The compassion, empathy and understanding felt in the audience is palpable. This is due to a wonderful script that Abrams has created and effective performances by the four actors…Through flashbacks and the convention of a split stage to show two things happening at once, the plot of the play unfolds in non-chronological order, making the experience gripping and ultimately uplifting. All of Us is exciting theatre...a compelling story with plenty of humour and great dramatic writing.”
All Of Us - Film
A film of All Of Us, by Matthew Jenke of Silver Eye Films, has been screened at a conference of restorative justice facilitators in New Zealand, a gathering of restorative justice community representatives, a public community audience in Kaikoura, and Nelson Bays Community Law Service.
Future collaborations include film screenings at the Wellington University Law Society followed by a Q&A panel of criminal justice lecturers and restorative justice practitioners; with training hospital staff in Kaikoura about family violence, in Blenheim to raise awareness around family violence and restorative justice, in Nelson for therapists and social workers (at their request), and for utilisation in new training being developed for restorative justice practitioners. The film has also been offered to the National Family Violence Networks’ annual conference to open dialogue around the place of restorative justice in family harm. Conversations are also underway for a potential partnership with a local secondary school, and with Restorative Justice Nelson to support Youth Nelson, an alternative education school.