The uncanny in North Fitzroy

AustralianPlays.org reports on an Australian play on stage 

One of the performers suddenly became a character that was the ghost of a girl and scared the living hell out of the crowd. With no effects at. It just was a grown man wearing flannel PJs...
 

The lastest from independent company MKA: Theatre of New Writing opens in Melbourne tonight.

It's Triangle by MKA's Executive Producer Glyn Roberts. 

Triangle is about "a series of crisscrossing and concurrent realities" in Noth Fitzroy, where "Bohemian meets bourgeoisie."

It centres around the unlikely meeting of two women, one a 'yummy mummy' and the other a vampire.

The script was shortlisted for the Patrick White Playwrights Award this years, the judges describing it as:

"an impressive piece of writing; a beautifully observed portrait of loneliness and connection, realised through powerful imagery and language use."

Glyn's previous plays include Shitzerland and Style Sensation Showcases a Three Story Void. His most recent play was The Horror Face, which Cameron Woodhead described as:

"a swift, unstable blend of robotic comedy and ghoulish horror."

Triangle was developed through MKA's Open Season and at MKA’s Red Eye Special at the National Play Festival earlier this year.

We asked Glyn a few questions about Triangle and the idea of horror in theatre.

The play is described as dark and funny, and ‘inner-city Horror.’ Would it be fair to call it a horror comedy then?

I think it's very fair to call it a Horror. Deconstructed Horror maybe, as blood and gore is quite hard to do on stage convincingly so the play avoids that and leaves it to the audiences' imagination to fill in the gaps.

Is genre actually something you thought about?

It more or less comes about half way through writing. When I realise what it is that I am writing.

What is it about the notion of the ‘uncanny’ that appeals to you?

I find that the possible is best served within the impossible.

The vampire has been a popular figure for a long time, but has enjoyed a resurgence lately in entertainment aimed mainly at women. Could you just as easily have written this story about two men, or there something inherently female about the story?

No, I think that this is really very much about the female experience of inner-city life. And the levels that women can deeply relate to one another in way that men often cannot.

How do you go about creating genuine fear and suspense on stage?

We really just wanted to tell the story of the play and let the atmosphere and feelings that performances evoked lead the way.

That's not to say that it isn't scary or terrifying. Parts of this production are extremely creepy.

Your previous play was The Horror Face so clearly you’re drawn to dark ideas. Can you talk about what's influenced you in that regard?

I don't know what it is! It's just how it comes out. That said, I rarely listen to any music that isn't in a minor key.

Mark O'Rowe's Terminus has to be a big inspiration for my more recent work.

One of the biggest inspiration for this play comes from comedy. I caught the comedy duo The Pajama Men a couple of years back. If you don't know them they perform comedy theatre and the two guys play about 25 character each and they are hilarious. One of the performers suddenly became a character that was the ghost of a girl and scared the living hell out of the crowd. With no effects at. It just was a grown man wearing flannel PJs. That was very inspiring to see.

TRIANGLE

Written by Glyn Roberts

Directed by Tanya Dickson

23 July - 3 August

MKA North Melbourne - VIC

Presented by MKA: Theatre of New Writing

Two women sit inside a series of crisscrossing and concurrent realities; they sit next to a parkbench in Edinburgh Gardens. One in a tree. One in a house. The supernatural becomes the domestic, the uncanny, the everyday. There is no more cous cous in Piedemonte’s and post-natal depression is as horrifying as the sound of his bicycle as it slips down the driveway each morning. If it were somewhere else it could be Notting Hill or Mitte. It’s North Fitzroy. Where bohemian meets bourgeoisie. Where nihilism meets the corner of St George Road and Scotchmer Street. Where I once saw Vince Collosimo and Chopper at the same time.

More info at mka.com.au