When Chenturan Aran's debut Cut Chilli premiered in 2024, one critic suggested it might be "the best new Australian play to arrive on Sydney stages" that year."It got five stars in the Herald, which was really great," Aran says "I always attribute it to luck, really, and then it sold out."A slew of award nominations soon followed at the 2025 NSW Literary Awards, including the prize for playwriting, writers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and debut writers.The judges described the play as "bold and blistering", praising its believable characters, realistic script, and witty and clever dialogue.While it missed out on an award, Cut Chilli signalled the arrival of an exciting new voice in Australian theatre.This month, the play made its Melbourne debut, selling out its season as part of Darebin Arts Speakeasy.In Cut Chilli, down-to-earth but quick-witted Jamie, Sri Lankan-born but adopted by white parents as a baby, returns home to Perth, accompanied by his podcaster girlfriend Zahra, who is determined to help "decolonise" her boyfriend.The acerbic, intergenerational drama plays out mostly at the dinner table, where Jamie and Zahra comically butt heads with Jamie's parents Katherine and Lee and his uncle Jeff.The Melbourne premiere followed a season of Aran's latest play, The Supposed to Be, at Melbourne arts festival Rising in May, while the Sydney premiere of his collaboration Comet Boombox is set for November, after it debuted at Melbourne Fringe in 20