You’re starring in Cock at the Old Fitz next month. What’s the play about?
Cock is about John and M, a gay couple. Their long-term relationship is in its death throes and in the middle of this John falls in love with a woman, W. It’s a savage and funny contemporary play all about identity and love and sexuality, our basic need for security and certainty and our fear of the ambiguous.
Have you had any awkward moments telling friends and family about your latest role?
Yes, Cock is hard. I mean, it’s hard to talk about Cock. To tell people you are doing Mike Bartlett’s Cock. That you are tired from working on Cock all day. To ask people to buy a ticket and pay for Cock. To tell them that we are wrestling with Cock in rehearsals, trying to get it into our bodies, our mouths but we feel like it’s starting to roll off the tongue. There’s probably a hundred more…
Mike Bartlett’s play is certainly an original one – what appealed to you about the role?
Mike Bartlett has written all four characters with a beautiful depth and humanity. W is an interesting subversion of the ‘other woman’ trope. She lies to herself, she is manipulative and she is sexy, and leads John through his first hetero sex scene with an amazingly AnaХs Nin-like confidence. But she is also vulnerable and funny and joyous and cruel.
You recently won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Lead Role in an Independent Production for your work in A Doll’s House. How special is it to be recognised amongst your peers?
It was an honour to be nominated amongst such a talented group of women and to walk out onstage and see the whole industry there was an amazing view. I think the Sydney Theatre Awards are such a great initiative to celebrate our industry. It was an awesome night but I wish I had written a speech. I drank too much champagne and opened my speech by calling out “vagina”.
How healthy is the independent theatre scene in Sydney at the moment?
I think we are living in such an exciting time – companies like Red Line, Sport For Jove, Hayes Theatre Company, Rocksurfers Theatre Company, ATYP Under The Wharf, 107 Projects, the Old 505. Sometimes you think great art can’t be made on our little island in the middle of the ocean but it is. It’s rad. Go buy tickets to it all.
Cock as part of Mardi Gras 2015 atOld Fitzroy TheatrefromTuesday February 3 until Friday March 6, tickets online.
