• Elisabeth Eitelberger, Mila Leighton, Karolina Koziara, Jemma Fleming, Daniela O‘Mara and Johanna Valency are heading to Mars.

STORMWATER and Lonely Mars are separate plays exploring gender equality and oppression, diversity, cultural tolerance, and the continued existence of the human race.

Written and produced by Fremantle locals Bello Benischauer and Elisabeth Eitelberger, they focus on worldwide issues like climate change and escalating international violence.

“Calling attention to the many areas in which ignorance and discrimination have the ultimate power to rule,” Benischauer says.

Stormwater centres on a family of four; mum, dad and a grown-up son and daughter.

They’re preppers stocking up with emergency supplies in the face of cataclysmic events they fear are coming.

“[In] fact they start digging up their unpleasant past,” Benischauer says.

It’s about love, accusations of incest, ignorance and intolerance.

“It questions values and beliefs and how our individual sense of judgement … may be informed, heavily influenced and even altered by societal standards,” Benischauer said.

Lonely Mars is set in 2242 with a group of women about to be sent to Mars to breed a new generation, in the hope of preserving the human race.

It poses the question of whether it’s possible to break the cycle of human failure so saving the planet comes before corporate greed.

“See for yourself on what terms we possess a future,” Benischauer says.

The couple’s plays are immersive theatre and audiences are invited to engage with the actors, and to stay around after the show to discuss and ask questions.

Part of Fringe World they’re on at the historic Perth Girls School hub.

Stormwater finishes up tonight (Saturday January 25 so you’ll have to get in quick) but  Lonely Mars runs February 10–16.

Tickets at fringeworld.com.au