My father is in his eighties and lives in Perth, every morning he walks up a hill and sits down for a few minutes and looks over the city.
Every time I’m over there he gets me up at 5.30 and asks me if I’m coming, a little condescension in his tone suggesting the hill is too tough.
My father’s been married to my mother for over 55 years. He was a protestant she was a catholic. They were not allowed to get married in the front of the church and the priest told them they would never last. Even their astrological signs were incompatible.
My father’s been married to my mother for over 55 years. He was a protestant she was a catholic. They were not allowed to get married in the front of the church and the priest told them they would never last. Even their astrological signs were incompatible.
He’s always worked, he’s never been on the dole, he’s never assaulted anyone and he’s never been to jail. He is and always has been a working class man. My favourite memory of him, and he was a bus driver, was when I was on his bus years ago. It was night and we were heading to Perth when this old woman stood up and told him something. She was very drunk. He pulled over, she got off and he waited, then when she got back on he gave her a nod and they took off. She’d wanted a wee.
One of the last times I was over there we got talking about the #metoo movement. The Geoffrey Rush scandal was everywhere and he told me, matter-of-factly,
“that’s how it is now, I’m the bad guy.”
This play tackles man shaming, and suicide, but instead of preaching or whining, I wrote the script to allow the actors, especially the three males to show rather than tell the audience a fundamental truth that we seem to be forgetting,
“Men Are Beautiful”
Interestingly, since we have only a small marketing budget we’ve been sending the script out to anyone who wants to read it. One of those readers, Jaimes Walch was so impressed he decided to bring the play to Corowa, and we are heading there on Oct 11th and 12th, but then he decided to take it one step further and has started organizing a march in the City of Melbourne to support the play. They are calling it the “Melbourne Marooned March”. Starting at Federation Square at 12 noon on Saturday the 21st September and from there they are Marching to the steps of “The Southbank Theatre.”
A powerful, new Australian play aimed predominantly at men and dedicated to a Melbourne actor, who took his own life, is now to be supported by a March.
On top of this The Australian Defence Force has booked two private showings for their chain of Commands. If they approve, they will tour the play to all their bases.
Marooned
Southbank Theatre, The Lawler 18 – 28 Sept 2019
Producer/ Media Contact Rohana Hayes 0425 854 942
