Finding Cynthia
A story of adoption, identity, and finally telling the truth
Can a mother and daughter separated at birth become a family again?
Adopted as an infant, Sue lived a dynamic life of her own making. Adventurous and whip smart, she has it all planned out, until her past resurfaces and throws it up in the air. She moves across time and continents, drawn into a journey of discovery she never asked to go on. On this turbulent, transformative search for her whakapapa, Sue navigates complex relationships, looking for peace inside the truth that everyone seems hell bent on keeping from her.
Finding Cynthia toured Aotearoa in April 2026 to sold-out audiences in Wellington and Waiheke.
Back by popular demand, an adapted version of the play will tour again March & April 2027. Find the current schedule on the Events page.
“This story is not easy or straightforward. It bears no resemblance to facile media portrayals of a ‘happy-ever-after reunion’. But it is strikingly honest, vivid, and moving.”
Anne Else, adoption history expert & NZ Order of Merit for Literature
“This is compelling theatre. It’s a story of unexpectedly finding whakapapa, dealing with familial complexity, and finding peace as one’s own person in the face of, at times, too much information. It’s a story for which there are surely many variants in Aotearoa as a generation of adoptees have learned to live with questions of who they are in light of who they might otherwise have been. And for every Cynthia there is a birth mother living with a decision which was only ever partly hers.”
Robin Kearns, reviewing "Finding Cynthia" for 13th Floor Theatre