When

2023-24: development

Creative team

Writer/Creator Michele Lee

About

Format

8 x 40 minute, drama-comedy

One-liner

After attending a 40th birthday party, three friends become determined to live more meaningful lives as they head towards 40, creating havoc at home and work, and destroying their friendship.

Story

NATALIE is a writer whose last hit play was years ago. When she calls out tokenism with a powerful theatre manager, her gutsy move earns her a commission to write a play about her mum. Natalie becomes the identity politics warrior she used to roll her eyes at. But to really write the play, she has to reconnect with her mum and her culture.

TILDA is at the top of her game in her high-paid government job. And she’s bored by it. Craving more purpose, she becomes a guru for other people making career pivots. But the more in demand she is, the more she realises she won’t be happy in any job until she burns her whole career down.
MATT is at peak satisfaction in his creative outlets, work life and mental health. It’s time to step up in his romantic life. He deletes the apps and proposes to his on-off girlfriend Chelsea. A sudden wedding might just be what this commitment-phobe with ADHD needs.

To become the most authentic they’ve ever been—in identity, in family, in work and in love—these three best friends will do what they did across their drug-fuelled 20s and buckle-down 30s. They’ll rely on each other. Until it ruins their friendship.

Support

Authentically is a revamped and expanded concept from initial development work on the concept Next Big Thing.