The Whitlocks

In a contemporary northern-suburbs home, the Whitlock family agrees to place their mobile phones inside a lockbox. What appears to be a simple experiment soon removes the distractions that have allowed them to avoid one another. Without their screens, sibling rivalry, loneliness, online identities and long-suppressed emotional needs begin to surface. Humorous, recognisable and increasingly revealing, The Whitlocks examines a family attempting to reconnect in an age of constant digital communication. It is a contemporary comedy-drama about technology, isolation and the difficult truth that being permanently connected does not necessarily mean being known, heard or understood.

The Whitlocks explores family communication, smartphone and social-media dependence, loneliness, attention-seeking and the difference between genuine identity and online performance. It examines intergenerational conflict, romantic connection, motherhood and the difficulties of living together while remaining emotionally disconnected. At its heart, the play asks whether removing technology can reunite a fractured family—or merely expose the problems their screens have helped them avoid.

A contemporary two-act family comedy-drama comprising short, fast-moving scenes. Act I runs for approximately 50 minutes and Act II for approximately 35 minutes. The play uses blackouts, text-message and screen-time sequences, ensemble entrances and moments of unison dialogue to depict the Whitlock family’s technology-dominated life. The central theatrical device is a lockbox requiring two keys, into which Roxy places the family’s mobile phones as part of her social experiment. The resulting conflict builds towards Roxy’s head injury and an emergency trip to the Northern Hospital, forcing her daughters to put aside their differences and support one another.

The Whitlocks is set in a contemporary Australian suburban home during May 2023. References to smartphones, selfies, texting, social media, Uber Eats, Northcote Plaza, school routines and the Northern Hospital place the story firmly within everyday life in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. The play reflects a period when mobile devices had become central to family communication, entertainment, romance and personal identity. Although family members share the same home, much of their interaction occurs through screens, highlighting a distinctly twenty-first-century form of domestic isolation. The Whitlock family and the events depicted are fictional.

Written by Marty MonStar in 2024, The Whitlocks is structured in two acts. Act One runs approximately 50 minutes and Act Two approximately 35 minutes, giving an estimated total running time of 85 minutes, excluding any interval. The script is designed for an ensemble production with seven performers. The current script does not record a public premiere and remains available for theatrical development and production.

A contemporary family living room with practical furniture and mobile-phone props. Simple lighting and sound support the domestic action.

Recommended for mature teenage and adult audiences.

Contains strong colloquial language and insults, sexual and phone-sex references, vomiting, menstruation and period-pain discussions, illness and medical themes. The play also depicts a head injury, bleeding and ambulance treatment, and includes discussion of mental illness and possible Münchausen syndrome.