Counting and Cracking


Counting and Cracking is a play by Australian playwright S. Shakthidharan. It concerns four generations of the one Tamil family across Sri Lanka and Australia.
It was originally produced by Belvoir and Co-Curious at the Sydney Town Hall for the 2019 Sydney Festival. The production also played at the Adelaide Festival.
Counting and Cracking received seven 2019 Helpmann Awards including Best Play and Best New Australian Work and won best mainstage production at the 2019 Sydney Theatre Awards. It won both the Victorian Prize for Literature and the Victorian Premier's Prize for Drama at the 2020 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. In April 2020 Counting and Cracking won the Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.