In the pages of Pearls, Tracy Crisp entwines the pull of grief, the push of creative ambition, the messiness of family and friendships, and the many possible versions of ourselves.

Tracy’s father has just died, and she’s helping to clear out her childhood home in Port Pirie. But she still cannot find the pearls – her mother’s pearls, lost ever since her mother died in a car accident, not long after Tracy wore the pearls for her own wedding.

Followed by grief, Tracy moves with her young family to a dislocating new home in another country and back again. She sees her boys morph into adults, her beloved grandfather lose his memory, and her friends fall into their second acts through their stitch and bitch group chat. All the while, Tracy is pulled back to consider her mother’s restlessness and hopes, and what other iterations of life she herself could be living.

Originally performed as a series of award-winning coming-of-middle-age ‘mem