You’re appearing inBrokenat Darlinghurst Theatre Company this month. How have preparations been going so far?
Preparations are going great! We have such a fantastic team on board for this production who are professional and enthusiastic about unique storytelling. We’ve also had the writer Mary Anne Butler with us early on and she was extremely supportive and open to our approach.
It’s the Sydney premiere of Butler’s text. What can audiences expect?
They can expect a production that is stripped back to the essence of storytelling. The sense of isolation within a vast landscape that the writing addresses has been approached in an abstract and aural way. The audience will be given the opportunity to tune in and listen to Mary Anne’s beautifully detailed writing as time shifts and the world slows down around them.
Can you introduce us to the character you’re playing?
I’m playing Mia, who is intensely affected by the theme of isolation. She is compelled to make some very difficult choices on her own with consequences detrimental to others. Some things are devastatingly irreversible.
Have you ever faced any of your own traumatic situations for you to draw on in portraying Mia?
I have to say that I don’t really work in this way. And while the act of creating can be considered therapeutic by artists (because it keeps us sane!) I don’t know that drawing on past trauma is a sustainable way to inhabit performance for theatre. It may be helpful for film acting, writing or visual arts, but reliving personal misery night after night is potentially damaging! I think all of a person’s observations and experiences unconsciously contribute to what ends up being presented.
How important is it to bring Australian writers’ stories to the local stage?
Employment of local artists is paramount as there are so many talented people here who deserve the opportunity to develop their work. I personally love stories from all over and believe that any good story has universal resonance, though audiences will often empathise and relate in a deeper way when they are given a more familiar context. It’s important that an awareness of the society we support and contribute to and its associated issues are being discussed.
Broken runs until Sunday August 28 at Eternity Playhouse.
