Making beanies is serious business in Alice Springs.
Each year, women (mainly) begin furiously knitting elaborate, colourful beanies in time for the annual Alice Springs Beanie Festival in late June.
Now a play about the knit-a-thon will come to Plenty Ranges Arts Centre, thanks to manager James Mavros, a board member of Black Lines, a national touring initiative that connects suburban Australia to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance and theatre
The play, Head Full of Love, centres on Nessa Tavistock, who arrives in Alice Springs where she meets Tilly Napuljari, an Indigenous woman who is behind on her knitting and in need of kidney dialysis. Written by Alana Valentine, the play centres on these two women and an unlikely friendship that transcends cultural and racial differences.
Mr Mavros has booked the play in at South Morang, securing a date for July 21 while it’s on a national tour from June to September. To coincide with the show, the Yarra Plenty Regional library has organised its own beanie-making competition, entries in which will be exhibited in the theatre foyer. The winner will receive a family ticket to Circus Oz.
All the beanies will then be donated to Purple House, an Aboriginal renal dialysis healthcare organisation. Tickets can be purchased online: bit.ly/1Sc8yfw or call 9217 2317.
