Images: Lucy Theatre Director, Lucy as Keef, A Riff on Keef opens Nov 25
1. When did you first come across Playback Theatre Sydney?
After graduating from drama school, I was doing a course at ATYP (Australian Theatre for Young People) where my tutor had their brochure. During my own theatre training we’d used improvisation to develop solid references for characters by discovering emotions, thoughts and reactions surrounding a character’s situation. So I was familiar with improvisation as an exploratory tool – as a means to an end – but not as a performance technique per se.
2. What attracted you to it and when did you join the ensemble?
It’s real life stories, in all their dramatic and comedic glory. It is an extension of sitting around a campfire and telling tales, with a guitar. Someone stands up and acts it out. Someone else takes on the role of the antagonist. Someone else provides the soundtrack. A big attraction of Playback’s theatre form is that a person’s story is just as valid as any playwright’s story to be told on stage. Where it started, in NY, it would be performed in factories with people who had never been to the theatre or seen themselves or their stories represented on stage. We’re privileged to hear personal stories from sections of the population who would never usually get the chance to voice their story. Also, it’s incredibly life affirming to see your own story played back to you, to realise you have been properly heard, you can see new parallels and it offers you a chance to reflect on your story in a different light. This may spark a recollection in someone else, who may not have intended to speak that day, or who had not thought of that story in years, but the previous story has sparked some recognition or resonance. Then we find we are subconsciously riffing on a theme. That is when it is thrilling, the audience is also improvising, taking risks, sharing their experiences and seeing where it goes. I have been with Playback Theatre Sydney for 17 years. It remains glorious and hideous, challenging, exhilarating, terrifying and wonderful work!
3. What’s an unusual or interesting character you’ve improvised onstage?
I like playing inanimate objects. The ensemble once created a family home. Although we were on a simple stage, with no props or set, I can still see the details of it. It is immensely satisfying to create something out of nothing, leaving an impression in the imagination. I have played the embodiment of ADHD. We’ve played cities and rivers, goats and god. I do remember playing a company once, It was undercutting workers’ rights, a cheap and nasty company, with loose morals. That was incredible fun.
4. Is there a story that moved you that you still think about today?
The first show I saw was a packed out public show with a Student Representative Council delegation. A young man got up and told a story about the death of his grandfather. It was a beautiful story and then we witnessed an incredibly moving performance played back, on stage, just after hearing it. The skill, empathy and deftness in the performance was amazing – and the entire audience was in tears. I was hooked.
5. What do you like doing when you’re not doing Playback?
All my time and energy at the moment is focused on a new play I am directing. A Riff On Keef; The Human Myth is an absurdist take on the fascinating life of Keith Richards. It’s playing at the The Stables in Kings Cross and is the last show of Griffin Theatre Company’s Independent Season for 2015. It opens on the 25th of November. It’s set across many times and places, and contains shape-shifting lizards, ghosts, hellhounds on the loose and a goodly dose of rock n roll. We take the mythology of the man and riff on it. To say I am not utilizing some of the techniques I have learnt in Playback would be a gross misrepresentation 🙂 Here’s some more about it – http://www.griffintheatre.com.au/whats-on/a-riff-on-keef-the-human-myth/
6. Where do you think Playback makes the greatest impact?
Playback works on many levels. It can be the story of what happened on the bus this morning. It can be the story of trauma – war victims, mental health sufferers, refugees, community workers on the front line. It is best when the teller is compelled to speak, like the story has erupted inside them and they find themselves raising their hand to volunteer. It may not be fully formed, but there is an essence of a story there, that is almost demanding to be told. Playback is always a creative challenge. It’s always a risk to step out on stage with no plan; to step into the light and go with your impulse. Your mind is full of many aspects of the story; the characters, the places, potential metaphors and the overarching meaning, the sub text. Or – it could just be trying to remember the name of the protagonist. So sometimes it doesn’t work, but that is the nature of it. The payoff is when your impulse is right and when that occurs, it is inspired, wonderful work.