Amid the chaos of COVID in early 2020, the publication of Shannon Molloy’s book Fourteen still landed a knockout punch. A devastating memoir of the persecution Molloy suffered at the hands of both students and teachers at a Catholic school in Yeppoon in 2000, the book proved a #MeToo moment for gay teenagers. Actor Conor Leach (left) is starring in the play Fourteen, based on the memoir by Shannon Molloy (right), and is portraying the author.
Credit: Joel Devereux “It was the most incredible thing, not just to have people read it, but to have people resonate with it,” says Molloy, now a Sydney-based journalist. “And not just queer people, but also young people who feel trapped in their suffocating hometowns, no matter who they are.” Soon the notes of thanks started flooding in: emails, Facebook messages, handwritten letters; from tiny Australian towns and as far away as Germany and the USA; from bullied kids, their parents and grandparents and, devastatingly, the bereaved.
Molloy’s biggest surprise, however, came when he received an Instagram message from Brisbane’s Shake & Stir theatre company inquiring if the stage rights were available. “Barely 18 months later, it was on a stage,” Molloy marvels. Karen Crone and Conor Leach in Fourteen.
The play enjoyed a sold-out run at Brisbane Festival in 2022. Credit: Joel Devereux Shake & Stir’s Fourteen premiered at the Brisbane Festival in 2022 and was a sellout. Now the production has been revived and is in the .
