What were
the most enticing aspects of Machinalfor you when you
were offered the role of the Young Woman?
A job. A job is good. Also the fact that Imara wanted me
for it made me feel like it was something I should do. When someone
believes in you and asks for you it's intriguing and humbling and
instantly sparks your curiosity, because they've already decided
you can do it. And then, when I read the script, I thought, "Oh my,
that terrifies me; I better do it".
Has this shifted at all now that you're in the midst of
rehearsals?
Yes and no. Still a job. Still terrified. What has
shifted is my idea of a person going through a nervous breakdown. I
mean lots has shifted. But that's a big one. "Crazy people" don't
act crazy a lot of the time. So yeah. That's shifting. I hope I get
it right.
The role that you play is the heart
of Machinal and in every scene. How do you
handle such an emotional roller coaster as an actor?
I think with humour? Offstage obviously. The only way to get
through a role like this is to not take yourself too seriously or
stare too far down the rabbit hole in your own time. I'm not
sure what my secret will be once we start it in performance, I
suspect some more humour, a lot of focus,
good sleep and probably a glass of wine with gentle people
after the show.
The play is some 90 years old now. Has it been easy to
relate to?
Completely. Very easy. My aunt is 99 and I can relate to her
completely. Shakespeare's plays were written in the 1500s and they
are on every other day - this is completely relatable. In the first
scene, Young Woman describes how claustrophic the train is and how
she just had to get off it or she would faint. It's completely
current in so many ways. The only thing that puts it "in a time" is
just how repressing the world is for a woman. Our society has come
a long way since Treadwell wrote this, there's still a way to go,
but we have come a long way in terms of women's roles and
submission, and that's the main point of difference between the
world of the play and Sydney 2013.
What do you feel audiences will take away from the
production?
This is something that really matters to me with this play because
without spoiling anything, things don't go greatfor Helen Jones, so I am trying to work out what it is the
audience will be left with and I hope it is more than feeling
a bit depressed. I hopethat they will open up a
little more to people in crisis. If somebody is crying on the
bus, our reaction as a society is to ignore them because "that's
too much to handle" or even in our lives when people we know are
clearly distressed we sometimes don't ask enough. It's a bit like
that R U OK? Day that Australia has now. I want the message to be
something along those lines. Reach out a hand. Let's listen a bit
more. That kind of thing.
Machinal, 21 Nov - 7 Dec 2013, Wharf 2
Theatre.