Speaker 1: I record this podcast on Gaetigul Country. I'd like to
Speaker 1: pay my respect to the traditional.
Speaker 2: Custodians, and I'm recording on Urando Country, part of the
Speaker 2: cooler nation. Let's go.
Speaker 1: I know you're gonna dig this. It's like I've been
Speaker 1: given like an extra sprinkle of something.
Speaker 2: You've got layers, Yeah, I got layers. I was just thinking,
Speaker 2: I'm like, we're just such beautiful storytellers.
Speaker 1: You make a lot of sense to that girl. No,
Speaker 1: I'm done.
Speaker 2: I've been too honest to go.
Speaker 1: Well, it was Marti Gras on the weekend, and what
Speaker 1: an incredible year it's been for Mardi Gras. It's such
Speaker 1: a good turnout. I sat at home and watched it
Speaker 1: on the TV from Port Stevens. It was on my
Speaker 1: first nights that I had actually watched it on TV,
Speaker 1: and it's such a good broadcast. You know, there's no ads.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 2: I love how it's just bang bang bang bang bang bang.
Speaker 1: How did you spend your Saturday night?
Speaker 2: Oh? I was God. I was in Brisbane doing a
Speaker 2: book launch, so pretty exciting. I mean I flew to
Speaker 2: Brisee on Friday morning and flew out Saturday night. So yeah,
Speaker 2: that's how I spend it.
Speaker 1: How did it go?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was went really well. My girlfriend spontaneously actually
Speaker 2: booked the wrong flight on Friday morning we want to
Speaker 2: fly out from Melbourne. I was flying to Brizzy. She
Speaker 2: was flying back to Sydney. She realized that she booked
Speaker 2: the wrong flight. So I was like, why did you
Speaker 2: just come to Brisy and come to the book launch?
Speaker 2: And she did so I was like, all right, So
Speaker 2: that was really nice. We got to spend like Marti
Speaker 2: grad together.
Speaker 1: Well, I saw in your story over the weekend that
Speaker 1: you called her the love of your life. Oh tell
Speaker 1: me about that. What is that feeling like?
Speaker 2: I don't know, just peace.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think every day I spend with Mia, I don't know,
Speaker 2: we get closer and we both said I love you
Speaker 2: over the weekend. So the weekend was filled with lots
Speaker 2: of loves. But I don't know, it's just like a
Speaker 2: comfortable feeling. I feel like she's my best friend and
Speaker 2: I don't I don't know. I just feel like I'm
Speaker 2: just so excited to build a life with her. I
Speaker 2: think the only complication is just us living apart from
Speaker 2: one another at the moment and just trying to figure
Speaker 2: out how that looks. I think we just both want
Speaker 2: to spend time with one another and we just kind
Speaker 2: of make sure we like book the next trip, you know,
Speaker 2: as soon as we can, so we can get excited
Speaker 2: for whenever we get to see each other in person again.
Speaker 1: But beautiful. I want to talk about Mardi Gras over
Speaker 1: the weekend, and there's been so many great posts that
Speaker 1: people have been doing online celebrating that weekend and especially
Speaker 1: the parade. We had the first Nation's float and buy
Speaker 1: Icon Barker. It was one of the people who you know,
Speaker 1: were the shining figures on that float, but also an ally,
Speaker 1: Isaac Compton. He was up there with his big ole
Speaker 1: on the.
Speaker 2: I was so happy to see that. That looks so
Speaker 2: much fun. I was actually getting so much flomo and
Speaker 2: it looked like, oh honestly, that just the theme Black
Speaker 2: Royalty with all the mob on the flow, like that
Speaker 2: would have just been the best vibe, Like I reckon,
Speaker 2: I would have just been living totally be a fly
Speaker 2: on the wall, would just be there in person.
Speaker 1: And it's so good because they're one of the first floats,
Speaker 1: so they're actually i think the first float after the
Speaker 1: Duke's on bike.
Speaker 2: They should be first things first. First Nation's mob should
Speaker 2: be the first, always at the front and center, always.
Speaker 1: But I love that because they get it over and
Speaker 1: done with quickly. By the time you get to number
Speaker 1: two hundred. When you're watching, I'm thinking his mob look
Speaker 1: half asleep, like they look tired because they've been in
Speaker 1: the holding pen since four o'clock.
Speaker 2: I know, I remember, I remember being like a part
Speaker 2: of hours. It is hey, like it's just but you know,
Speaker 2: when you're first and you're going that first adrenaline if
Speaker 2: you see, oh I feel a good little goose bumpies.
Speaker 1: Yeah it is. It is an amazing feeling. And I
Speaker 1: wanted to just talk about something that is quite amazing
Speaker 1: that has come out over the weekend, and it's a
Speaker 1: post from Felicia Fox, who's a bit of a queer icon.
Speaker 2: They are.
Speaker 1: They are somebody who has definitely made a mark on
Speaker 1: the quei scene as a drag queen, Felicia Fox, and
Speaker 1: I only saw them perform recently, only a week ago
Speaker 1: at Barker's thirtieth and one of the really beautiful moments
Speaker 1: that I saw from the weekend was a shot of
Speaker 1: Felicia Fox.
Speaker 2: I know exactly what shot you're talking about?
Speaker 1: Yes, and the shot represented the intersection of who Felicia is,
Speaker 1: so the cultural identity with a cultural garment, the lap lap,
Speaker 1: and they were also painted up. The intersection was that
Speaker 1: and their queer identity. So they wore thigh high red
Speaker 1: boots to match the lap lap. I thought that was iconic.
Speaker 2: It's given kinky boots. I was like, I'm here, but
Speaker 2: I could never walk in them. I love that.
Speaker 1: It just to me was such a beautiful representation of pride,
Speaker 1: of everything that Felicia is, you know, and this intersection
Speaker 1: that I too resonate with. So the photo was posted
Speaker 1: online yesterday and it has caused a stir within the community.
Speaker 1: There are very mixed emotions about this shot. I thought
Speaker 1: it was amazing. I wanted to get your take on it.
Speaker 1: You've seen the image, what were your initial reactions?
Speaker 2: Well, I think seeing it, I felt a lot of
Speaker 2: pride because you know that first nation's flow is the
Speaker 2: first float, and if you know people are seeing Felicia,
Speaker 2: you know, dressed up expressing themselves. The whole thing, whole
Speaker 2: point of martigrav is self expression, love, acceptance, right, and
Speaker 2: that photo just intersects so much of her personality, but
Speaker 2: I see myself so much in that as well. I
Speaker 2: see the queerness, I see the cultural, I see the
Speaker 2: community part. I see like accepting they're a queer identity
Speaker 2: and being able to forward and show that. And I
Speaker 2: feel a lot of like peace with that as well.
Speaker 1: But I agree it's showing.
Speaker 2: Like an involvement of culture and identity and I think,
Speaker 2: like I felt really proud. But I have been reading
Speaker 2: the comments. I'm not on Facebook, so I have had
Speaker 2: a few people screenshot. I had conversations with Kayla, my housemate,
Speaker 2: about it this morning, and I can see it from
Speaker 2: some perspectives, but I don't agree with all of the
Speaker 2: comments and the hate that she is getting. I'd love
Speaker 2: to know what your thoughts are, especially as well, because
Speaker 2: the lap lap is traditionally for men in cultural practice.
Speaker 2: What's your take on it.
Speaker 1: I also just want to say that you know, the
Speaker 1: lap lap isn't just worn at ceremony or culture practice.
Speaker 1: It was traditionally worn always, you know, it was The
Speaker 1: painting is the cultural element that elevates for ceremony or
Speaker 1: for you know, a corrobboree that would happen with men's business.
Speaker 1: But what I want to say, is that for me,
Speaker 1: this beautiful image and Felicia Fox sharing these parts of
Speaker 1: her identity, their identity is an expression of pride. This
Speaker 1: is culture on display in both aspects. Its first nation's
Speaker 1: culture and it's gay culture. I think that the views
Speaker 1: that I've seen online, and this comes from Facebook, there
Speaker 1: are so many comments that really are trenched in homophobia,
Speaker 1: and I think that we are ingrained to feel a
Speaker 1: certain way about certain parts of the community, and when
Speaker 1: they intersect, it is jolting for a lot of people.
Speaker 1: I don't think that the later of violence that I'm
Speaker 1: seeing is granted. I don't think that it is something
Speaker 1: that is necessary in this moment, because it's like, this
Speaker 1: is a person on the one night of the year
Speaker 1: where they get to express their full set health and
Speaker 1: you're trying to tear them down. I just think it
Speaker 1: gives insecure I think it gives a lack of understanding,
Speaker 1: a lack of empathy, a lack of knowledge. I think
Speaker 1: that people who have this very black and white view
Speaker 1: on this, and you know, this is disrespect to culture.
Speaker 1: I think it's a pick and choose moment. I think
Speaker 1: they're choosing this to throw these hateful and derogatory, homophobic, racist.
Speaker 2: Violence just contributes to the system that already exists.
Speaker 1: Like, but what I'm trying to get at with what
Speaker 1: I'm saying is the fact that I really feel that
Speaker 1: these people who are making these comments wouldn't have the
Speaker 1: same reaction to culture being intersected in other parts of
Speaker 1: the community. For instance, the football.
Speaker 2: Yeah, AFL RL Olympic game.
Speaker 1: So that's the intersection of culture and a modern sport
Speaker 1: is okay, and it isn't disrespectful to our people. Yet
Speaker 1: as soon as there is this queer take on this intersection,
Speaker 1: it feels like these homophobic rants are just a tirade
Speaker 1: because people are so entrenched in their ways of thinking
Speaker 1: and what it is about. It's about the masculinity element
Speaker 1: to it. It's about the fact that a lot of
Speaker 1: these men and the women who are commenting see this
Speaker 1: as a blatant disrespect to masculine men and the masculinity
Speaker 1: of our culture when you.
Speaker 2: Can't be both masculine and feminine at the same time.
Speaker 1: Of course you can, but their view is that men
Speaker 1: and culture has to be masculine. You know. It's a
Speaker 1: very entrenched like view and take on our culture. That
Speaker 1: is it just excludes the different identities that we all
Speaker 1: can carry, you know, and like people. One comment that
Speaker 1: I made is that, you know, gay mob didn't just
Speaker 1: pop up with the first fleet, and we've been around
Speaker 1: for millennia, been a part of culture forever. And people
Speaker 1: are saying, well, you know what happened to those type
Speaker 1: of people in our culture when they were taken out
Speaker 1: to do ceremony? They never came back. And all I
Speaker 1: think to myself is that's bullshit, absolute bullshit.
Speaker 2: And there's like people who come out and make these
Speaker 2: comments but they don't understand the harm that they could
Speaker 2: be causing, and you know, because they don't obviously get
Speaker 2: it from a queer perspective, or why do we have
Speaker 2: to shrink ourselves to like to fit in to this
Speaker 2: this box that we're already kind of already trying to
Speaker 2: like break out of, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think as First Nations people, we know
Speaker 1: what it's like to have to fight to prove who
Speaker 1: we are, to share our identity, to be proud of
Speaker 1: who we are. And there is a whole another layer
Speaker 1: to that when it comes to being a queer First
Speaker 1: Nations person. So if you're a black fellow. You already
Speaker 1: know what it feels like to be a press. Don't
Speaker 1: do that to the people who are within our community
Speaker 1: but who are even more oppressed because of our sexual identity.
Speaker 1: Felicia Fox is free to be who they are. And
Speaker 1: I want to make a hashtag which is free to
Speaker 1: be Felicia Fox for the community to show their support.
Speaker 1: So hashtag free to be Felicia Fox. Show your support
Speaker 1: for Felicia and get behind this incredible artist because they
Speaker 1: have brought so much joy, so much beauty to the
Speaker 1: First Nation's queer community. So I just think it is
Speaker 1: such an incredible moment of the intersection of who we
Speaker 1: are as First Nations and queen people. And coming up
Speaker 1: is an incredible First Nations person who also happens to
Speaker 1: be a gay man. It's Ian Michael and the wonderful
Speaker 1: Larinda May, Mary Paul. This is super exciting. We have
Speaker 1: some incredible guests. Just before this, the segway was that
Speaker 1: coming up next is a person who also is is
Speaker 1: such an icon at the intersection of First Nations in
Speaker 1: queer culture. So we're talking about Ian Michael and the
Speaker 1: incredible Larinda May and Mary Paul. Welcome. The first things First.
Speaker 2: Now where you're from.
Speaker 4: I'm a woman man from the southwest of w A.
Speaker 3: I'm Hungary and Susy Islander woman and I'm from Rockhampton, Queensland.
Speaker 1: An earthquake. Oh you didn't know?
Speaker 3: Oh wait, no, up in towns Villain.
Speaker 1: Sorry is that far away? Queen It is right. I
Speaker 1: just think North Queensland is just one little spot.
Speaker 4: Literally.
Speaker 1: Well, welcome to First things First, we're so excited to
Speaker 1: have you on because we've seen some rave reviews about
Speaker 1: an incredible show that's happening at the Sydney Opera House.
Speaker 1: I and Michael, let's go to you first. Picnic Hanging Rock.
Speaker 1: Iconic title, iconic name, and Michael, I mean these things
Speaker 1: go together.
Speaker 2: I was like, real celebrity if you're saying both names. Michael, welcome. No, yeah,
Speaker 2: tell us a bit about the players. I've actually never
Speaker 2: seen it, and I know we've had you on before
Speaker 2: in talking about Stolen and now you've jumped onto now
Speaker 2: working as a director at Picnic at Hanging Rock. I
Speaker 2: don't actually know much about the play. I'm coming and blind,
Speaker 2: so can you tell us a little bit about it?
Speaker 4: Picnic Hanging Rock is an adaptation by Tom Wright and
Speaker 4: it's an adaptation of the Joan Lindsay novel which was
Speaker 4: written in the sixties, and it tells the story of
Speaker 4: a group of school girls from the Appleyard College in
Speaker 4: the Victorian Highlands and on Valentine's Day in nineteen hundred,
Speaker 4: they go to a picnic and while they're there, some
Speaker 4: of them fall asleep and it's this dreamy, lovely, CPR
Speaker 4: kind of toned world that they're having this beautiful day,
Speaker 4: and some of the girls decide that they want to
Speaker 4: take some measurements of the rock because on Monday morning,
Speaker 4: when they get back to the college, they have to
Speaker 4: write an essay and they're they're kind of pulled by
Speaker 4: this invisible force that takes them higher and higher into
Speaker 4: the rock and they don't have any control of it.
Speaker 4: And the four girls fall into this deep sleep that
Speaker 4: none of them can explain why or what happens to
Speaker 4: them afterwards.
Speaker 1: But I don't want to tell you about the drug
Speaker 1: they talk.
Speaker 4: They fall into this sleep and then they wake up
Speaker 4: and three of the girls are then taken higher and
Speaker 4: higher into the rock and essentially go missing.
Speaker 2: Wow, what kind of ethereal in like mysterious?
Speaker 4: Is it?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: Oh? Like, I don't know how what kind of genre
Speaker 2: is it.
Speaker 4: It's like Australian Gothic.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I'm here for the goth Yeah yeah.
Speaker 4: One of the girls, Edith, so Marion, Miranda, Edith climb
Speaker 4: the rock and Edith is the only one that comes
Speaker 4: back down.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah you, Larinda.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well I can't exactly tell you because there are
Speaker 3: seventeen roles in this show and only five actors, so
Speaker 3: none of us exactly play any one character.
Speaker 2: Oh I love this, so you change constantly, okay.
Speaker 4: And first, the first section of the play is essentially
Speaker 4: setting up the disappearance of the girls, and then we
Speaker 4: spend the rest of the production hearing about the aftermath
Speaker 4: and the search for them, and how the the traumas
Speaker 4: and the ripples of that experience kind of start to
Speaker 4: affect everybody in the college and the community. And yeah,
Speaker 4: like Laurendu was saying, these five actors play a various
Speaker 4: number of roles and it's written in this kind of
Speaker 4: blank verse, which it's this kind of poeticism with this
Speaker 4: incredible sense of imagery and rhythms, and it's it's quite.
Speaker 1: A thing, Laurinda. When you got the script, when you
Speaker 1: were cast. What is it that you first reacted to, Like,
Speaker 1: what was the sort of ah moment for you?
Speaker 3: I'm a mystery girl for at heart, like I grew
Speaker 3: up on Nancy Drew, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 3: I love a little mystery. And so I actually didn't
Speaker 3: know the story of Picnic at Hanging Rock either when
Speaker 3: I first heard about this when I was first contacted.
Speaker 3: So I went in and I watched watch the film,
Speaker 3: watched the TV show, read the book, read the script,
Speaker 3: and then I had my meeting with Ian, and we
Speaker 3: kind of bonded over what we think really happened to
Speaker 3: the girls, because that was one of the first things
Speaker 3: Ian asked me, you know, what do you think happened
Speaker 3: to them? I said, I think the rock kind of
Speaker 3: just swallowed them up, Like they weren't supposed to be there,
Speaker 3: so the earth just kind of took them. And so
Speaker 3: I think that was what really excited me about the
Speaker 3: story was just kind of the connection to country and
Speaker 3: like how it talks about you've got to really respect
Speaker 3: country and like, yeah, you know know what land you're on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it does sound very sacred, like if they're like trespassing,
Speaker 2: then there's consequences in some sense, I feel like.
Speaker 4: Traditionally hanging Rock is you know, it's on the lands,
Speaker 4: just want to acknowledge that it's on the lands of
Speaker 4: the Jada wrong the way were wrung and the ton
Speaker 4: of wrong people, and Hanging Rock is a significant sacred site,
Speaker 4: especially for young men for initiation and trade and ceremony, and.
Speaker 2: So women aren't allowed there. Would you say, like typically
Speaker 2: like traditionally.
Speaker 4: Or I don't know the full specifics of it, but
Speaker 4: in terms of like the interpretation of this production, I
Speaker 4: remember you saying that, And it's the first thing I
Speaker 4: thought as well, because it's especially thinking about an initiation
Speaker 4: site for young men that these young you know in
Speaker 4: the novel there are the five white women who climb
Speaker 4: this rock and have no sense of acknowledgment or understanding
Speaker 4: of what it is and what its purpose is. And
Speaker 4: so yeah, for me, people always ask me, and it's
Speaker 4: one of the first things I spoke about with the
Speaker 4: creative team was like, what do you think happened? And
Speaker 4: I was like, the rock swallowed them because they were
Speaker 4: not meant to be there.
Speaker 1: You both had that initial thought. I love that, And
Speaker 1: look that comes I suppose from that first Nation's lens.
Speaker 1: You know that that connection to country. But you just
Speaker 1: mentioned there's five white women and cast in, you know,
Speaker 1: like as the characters. But you've brought this whole other
Speaker 1: aspect to it. It's a First Nation's aspect. It's you know,
Speaker 1: a beautiful ian Michael touched to it. What was it
Speaker 1: like casting Laurinda? You know, First Nation's incredibly talented actor
Speaker 1: who's just basically done a world tour, four hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty shows.
Speaker 2: I had the pleasure of watching.
Speaker 1: One of them was in Angeliette. She's a superstar. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I still can't believe you said yes, yeah, yeah. I
Speaker 4: mean thinking about the adaptation and the production is the
Speaker 4: production is book ended by two scenes, Scene one and
Speaker 4: Seeing fourteen, and they are set in the present day.
Speaker 4: So when the audience meet five girls in contemporary present
Speaker 4: day schoolgirl uniforms. And I took that the note about
Speaker 4: present day really seriously because I knew that we couldn't
Speaker 4: retell this story in the same way it was told,
Speaker 4: you know, even five years ago when the first production
Speaker 4: went on, and so that our production had to look
Speaker 4: like the present day. It had to look like the
Speaker 4: city that we live in and the streets that we
Speaker 4: walked down. Yeah, and I knew that I couldn't deal
Speaker 4: with five white women telling the story, retelling it actually,
Speaker 4: And when we were casting, we had, you know, this
Speaker 4: kind of list of incredible actors, and we did a
Speaker 4: zoom with Lorenda and she like, one of the first
Speaker 4: things she said to me is like, I've read the book,
Speaker 4: I watched the film, I watched the series, and I
Speaker 4: was like, those are the kinds of people that I
Speaker 4: loved to work because I feel like I've got that
Speaker 4: same kind of ethic. And then you did the read
Speaker 4: and I was like, it's done.
Speaker 1: Wow, it was that easy.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I mean it doesn't. Yeah. Of course I
Speaker 4: was a and was a huge fan of Lorinda ever
Speaker 4: since and Juliette and I was devastated. I till learned
Speaker 4: to this all the time. I was so devastated the
Speaker 4: night that I went to see it.
Speaker 1: She wasn't on what a punch in the gun?
Speaker 4: No, I know. And so now whenever times every time
Speaker 4: she was singing in the rehearsal room, I'd be like,
Speaker 4: where is it coming from?
Speaker 1: Well into speaking of you know, not singing. You've been
Speaker 1: doing that for so long, but this play, you don't
Speaker 1: have to sing. And this is your first theater play,
Speaker 1: is that right?
Speaker 3: Or it's actually my second. I did play about four
Speaker 3: years ago, I think, or and beginning of twenty twenty
Speaker 3: two called Face to Face, which was actually a play
Speaker 3: by an Indigenous writer and it was my friend Hannah Blanski,
Speaker 3: another incredible Indigenous actress, and myself and she was my auntie.
Speaker 2: It was awesome.
Speaker 3: I just I love working with Blackfellows obviously, you know,
Speaker 3: because I did the Sappires as well. But yeah, no,
Speaker 3: this is my second play, but it's very different to
Speaker 3: anything I've ever done before. Honestly, it feels like I'm
Speaker 3: really stepping into a totally new genre of performing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really changing characters as well, Like, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: it's really cool, as Ian were saying before.
Speaker 3: We kind of start with scene one, which is this
Speaker 3: sort of a monologue shared by all five of us,
Speaker 3: and we do the things that are referred to as activations,
Speaker 3: where we'll be kind of telling a story and then
Speaker 3: we'll switch into speaking as the character, but then we'll
Speaker 3: switch back into telling the story, and then we'll switch
Speaker 3: into another character. So it's really exciting as an actor
Speaker 3: because I think during like one paragraph that I say,
Speaker 3: throughout it, I get to switch into a young girl,
Speaker 3: an old man, a Scottish lady throughout this one kind
Speaker 3: of speech. Wow. So as an actor, it's really an
Speaker 3: exciting challenge.
Speaker 1: Do you find that because you're not having to focus
Speaker 1: on your voice in terms of singing, that you can
Speaker 1: really hone the craft of acting as a more focal point.
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3: I think I underestimated how much vocal technique there actually
Speaker 3: is in acting in theater, like without the singing, because
Speaker 3: I think when I got cast in this, I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be so chill. I don't have to rest
Speaker 3: my voice anymore, like I'm just talking.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go party.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I know the amount of vocal technique that
Speaker 3: goes into performing and just speaking on stage to get
Speaker 3: your voice to reach every single one of those five
Speaker 3: hundred something people that are in the drama.
Speaker 2: Theater at the Opera House.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a It's actually such a big task, and
Speaker 3: I'm really glad it is, because I think I'd be
Speaker 3: bored with something less challenging.
Speaker 2: I'm glad it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Brooks new to acting. Just finish the film.
Speaker 2: I'm still struggling with the coming to terms with saying
Speaker 2: I'm an actor. I don't know, I just feel ait unusual.
Speaker 2: I should owner, and I think I'm like not ready to.
Speaker 2: I just need to like jump off the cliff, like
Speaker 2: I just.
Speaker 1: Feel like clumb the rock though.
Speaker 2: No, absolutely not. Yeah, yeah, no, no no. I love
Speaker 2: watching theater plays and shows like I'm just so obsessed
Speaker 2: with the craft. Now. I just finished a feature film,
Speaker 2: but it was scary. I didn't have much dialogue. So
Speaker 2: I'm overcoming that challenge that I don't think. I think
Speaker 2: too much into the words rather than the actual doing part. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so any advice for that? I mean, when your words heavy,
Speaker 2: it's it's you've got to get the words right, obviously,
Speaker 2: but it's giving justice to the characters in each form.
Speaker 2: Is the magic in it? Right?
Speaker 4: Yeah? This adaptation isn't a very kind of standard piece
Speaker 4: of complex It's written with hardly any punctuation. It's written
Speaker 4: in this.
Speaker 2: Sort of Shakespearean Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: I can only imagine it's a challenge as an actor.
Speaker 4: But it's like I think, you know, I always believe
Speaker 4: if you have a really great piece of text and
Speaker 4: you put really great performers in it, then you kind
Speaker 4: of can't really do any wrong. Yeah, And I guess
Speaker 4: our biggest thing in this production as well was not
Speaker 4: fighting the text. You just have to yeah, except what
Speaker 4: you've been given. And you know, Tom Wright is such
Speaker 4: a genius as a writer and as an adapter, like
Speaker 4: everything we need to end.
Speaker 3: We were so lucky actually to have Tom in the
Speaker 3: room for the first week when we were really analyzing
Speaker 3: the text. And I think for me, once I really
Speaker 3: understood the text and understood the world, it was much
Speaker 3: easier for the lines to just like settle into my
Speaker 3: brain once I was really like, oh, I get it.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And also, one of the really fascinating things about
Speaker 4: this text is that there are no character names in
Speaker 4: the script either.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker 4: We put the five actors' names in it, and so
Speaker 4: you never really know who you're playing.
Speaker 3: So I'm playing Laurinda.
Speaker 1: I love that well. And I want to ask you
Speaker 1: a question because I feel like your trajectory in the
Speaker 1: industry has been so incredible to see. You know, You've
Speaker 1: gone from strength to strength, from iconic show to iconic show.
Speaker 1: Last was Stolen. Now it's Picnic a Hanging Rock. It's
Speaker 1: your first show at the Sydney Opera House. That's a
Speaker 1: big moment in your career. What does it feel like
Speaker 1: to be at this moment and look back because you've
Speaker 1: done a lot in the last few years.
Speaker 4: Ah, I mean, I it's still like the play still on,
Speaker 4: so I haven't really had the chance to think about
Speaker 4: what it means yet because it's still kind of going.
Speaker 4: And yeah, and I'm just to be honest, I feel
Speaker 4: really proud of it. I'm it's I guess thinking about
Speaker 4: you know, I'm from a town of seven thousand people
Speaker 4: with one set of traffic lights.
Speaker 1: Yea, and so you saw the green light, the one
Speaker 1: green light.
Speaker 4: So I think that directing a play at the opera
Speaker 4: House was ever going to be an opportunity that would
Speaker 4: happen for me. And directing is still only you know,
Speaker 4: Picnics the fourth play I've ever directed, so you know,
Speaker 4: it's all of visit stills very it feels very new,
Speaker 4: and even you know, when we were making the play
Speaker 4: in the room, I would always I never think about
Speaker 4: it being the opera House. I always just thought it
Speaker 4: about it being called it the other room. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: too much about what it meant.
Speaker 2: Yeah, doesn't that just get scary?
Speaker 4: It was an incredibly iconic Australian story and an incredibly
Speaker 4: iconic Australian building, both very colonial, but you know it
Speaker 4: was It's some. Yeah, I'm really proud of it, and
Speaker 4: I feel really grateful to the actors and the creative
Speaker 4: team that I got to work with.
Speaker 2: I feel like I would love to know what you
Speaker 2: would want people to be left with from watching this play,
Speaker 2: not just from you know, obviously as a director, you
Speaker 2: want people to love your work, but then also this
Speaker 2: is a story that you're doing in adaptation to what
Speaker 2: do you what do you want to want people to
Speaker 2: leave with feeling knowing or even feeling challenged on per se.
Speaker 4: Being a very new director, I also have had experiences
Speaker 4: that aren't so great in rooms, and I want to
Speaker 4: create spaces where people feel safe, and I want to
Speaker 4: create and collaborate with people and build trust because I,
Speaker 4: you know, really love to I love as an actor
Speaker 4: to be pushed, and I think that's what I love
Speaker 4: to be able to do with really great actors is
Speaker 4: kind of push as far as we can go. And
Speaker 4: so it is a holding space, but creating space so
Speaker 4: people feel safe and they can do their best work
Speaker 4: and can dare to fail. You know, I'm really yeah.
Speaker 1: You know that's important that from so many people that
Speaker 1: have worked with you, is that you create a safe space.
Speaker 1: You know, Like there's so many people that I've crossed
Speaker 1: paths with in this industry who've been in your rooms
Speaker 1: and have just spoken, you know, so highly of you.
Speaker 1: So I think that like comes very natural to you, Yeah,
Speaker 1: to be able to create a safe space. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I love that because what a beautiful part of your reputation.
Speaker 1: You know, great at what you do, a great guy,
Speaker 1: and you create a safe space.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean I can imagine you know,
Speaker 2: being a shit scared like actor walking into a room,
Speaker 2: like you want to feel like, Okay, this is like
Speaker 2: my playground and I get to play and I get
Speaker 2: to create, and like I don't want to feel judged
Speaker 2: or I don't want to feel like okay, I would
Speaker 2: have think about what I'm what I should and shouldn't say,
Speaker 2: like that just it just it really like fucks up
Speaker 2: your craft. I think, like it really just fucks with
Speaker 2: your head. And like being able to just freely do
Speaker 2: what you want to do. I can imagine, like that's
Speaker 2: just so important for just people in the room when
Speaker 2: you're creating, you know, something all together. I think that's
Speaker 2: so valuable. I feel like if people could take a
Speaker 2: little bit of a page out of your book in like,
Speaker 2: there'd be so much more, you know, we wouldn't have
Speaker 2: having these negative experiences, like Lorenda was saying, like, not people,
Speaker 2: not all people are nice.
Speaker 1: You know, this cast is stacked so many incredible I
Speaker 1: mean Olivia de Jong we worked together on Elvis. You know,
Speaker 1: she was the most down toward humble actor that just
Speaker 1: lit up the set every time we shot on that film.
Speaker 1: And working closely with you know, Basloman I could and
Speaker 1: it was like just seeing this superstar who he fell
Speaker 1: in love with, you know, be so humble and so nice.
Speaker 1: She was the person I got along with most on
Speaker 1: that set. When it came to the actors working with Olivia, I.
Speaker 4: Mean, like, to be honest, I can't believe that anybody
Speaker 4: said yes. I've never known these five people saying yes.
Speaker 4: And you know the same thing I think because it
Speaker 4: live's first play crazy, but actually, like every single person
Speaker 4: entered this room and entered this retelling in the same
Speaker 4: way that we kind of I guess all believed in
Speaker 4: it and really wanted to work hard and lift it.
Speaker 4: I couldn't believe on first preview that was Olivia's first
Speaker 4: performance in front of an audience before you know. It
Speaker 4: was incredible, and I've been really lucky that a few
Speaker 4: productions that I've done, I've been able to give people
Speaker 4: their first plays. And that's such an incredible thing because.
Speaker 1: That means that Brooke looking at you, we haven't worked
Speaker 1: together yet.
Speaker 2: I would jump off the clue. I'm just I'm just
Speaker 2: I'm not ready.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you, you know, what has the
Speaker 1: reaction been when you walk out stage door, people waiting,
Speaker 1: you know, at the end of opening night? Have people
Speaker 1: what did they say to you?
Speaker 3: Oh, it's just been an credible reaction. Honestly, this was,
Speaker 3: as I've said a few times now, it's such a
Speaker 3: different thing for me, so I truly was not sure
Speaker 3: like how people were going to receive it. Like I
Speaker 3: felt like it was an amazing show, but it's very
Speaker 3: different to anything I've seen, anything I've been in. So
Speaker 3: it was like, not exactly nervous, but I was just curious.
Speaker 3: And everyone has just been raving to me about it,
Speaker 3: like they've all been completely shocked because I think it's
Speaker 3: a hard show to kind of explain to anyone, like
Speaker 3: it's an experience. In my opinion, it's sort of like
Speaker 3: it's a work of art. It's kind of like you're
Speaker 3: going into an art gallery and you're like experiencing and
Speaker 3: you're working through those different feelings motions. Yeah, the audience
Speaker 3: is with you on this journey and it's a massive
Speaker 3: journey up the rock, and I think everyone feels it.
Speaker 3: Everyone that sits in that audience really feels the journey
Speaker 3: and is completely on it with us.
Speaker 2: So I think they all come out kind of like.
Speaker 3: Heavy, like oh god, that was like really like a journey.
Speaker 1: You know. Across the board. The reviews have been incredibly
Speaker 1: so good.
Speaker 2: Oh guys, I really want to go to see it.
Speaker 2: Where can we see it? I know you guys are
Speaker 2: in Sydney. Where can people go and watch it?
Speaker 4: It's on at the Drama Theater at the Sydney oppera
Speaker 4: House the.
Speaker 1: Room.
Speaker 4: Stumping off the back of what Lolly was saying, thinking
Speaker 4: about the lens of retelling this story and what people
Speaker 4: should you know, hopefully take away from it is in
Speaker 4: telling a very iconic Australian story that is about colonization
Speaker 4: and about land and what it means to not acknowledge
Speaker 4: it and respect it. That's what I hope people take
Speaker 4: away from it is that they have to think about country,
Speaker 4: the acknowledgment, what it means to exist in this place differently.
Speaker 4: And that's the thing that I want people to take away,
Speaker 4: is that they have to think about this story in
Speaker 4: a different way. They can't unthink about it.
Speaker 1: I love that. I want to ask you one final question,
Speaker 1: and it's very in Michael question. Okay, of course it
Speaker 1: is come on where the Captain of the Beehive tell
Speaker 1: me how much of this show was inspired with those
Speaker 1: visuals by Queen Bee herself?
Speaker 4: So much?
Speaker 1: I knew it. I knew it, I knew it come
Speaker 1: on to her.
Speaker 4: Every single every single play that I've ever directed has
Speaker 4: a reference to Beyonce. I love that, you know, but
Speaker 4: it kind of it comes from the text. Everything in
Speaker 4: this production that we've made comes from the text that
Speaker 4: Tom Ryders given the original source material.
Speaker 1: The film and the novel and the original destinies che.
Speaker 4: And you know, there's there's there's many references to the
Speaker 4: Hanging Rock being a monolith, and so my first instinct
Speaker 4: was the monolith from the Formation World Tour, of course,
Speaker 4: as Devlin designed, and so you know, we thought a
Speaker 4: lot about portals, as many references to portals and the
Speaker 4: girls being swallowed up, and so we have this kind
Speaker 4: of architectural thing that just looms over these women the
Speaker 4: whole time. Is this for each others? And yeah, we
Speaker 4: thought a lot a lot about Beyonce. Elizabeth Gadsby and
Speaker 4: I who designed Picnic, used Beyonce and the Formation Tour
Speaker 4: a lot.
Speaker 2: I love little.
Speaker 1: I said to you one day he will do a
Speaker 1: Beyonce show, but everything because you can't get the license
Speaker 1: to it would be this is not Beyonce. Everything about Beyonce,
Speaker 1: but there is no mention of her. Lorinda, your cast
Speaker 1: is Beyonce? Done well? No, we want to thank you
Speaker 1: so much. I mean, such a pleasure and honor to
Speaker 1: have you deadly talented mob on our podcast. So much
Speaker 1: love and respect for what you both do. So thank
Speaker 1: you for spending time with us.
Speaker 4: Thank you so feeling very mutual.
Speaker 2: Anyways, that's all we have time for today, guys, thanks
Speaker 2: so much for listening to First things first, if you
Speaker 2: love what you're hear, leave us obviously a rating and
Speaker 2: a review because we need want to stars.
Speaker 1: Totally and if you want us to cover anything on
Speaker 1: the pod, reach out by our socials. Brooks handle is
Speaker 1: at brookdoup Lot and my handle is at It's Mudy Meal.
Speaker 1: He and Michael Where can they find you?
Speaker 4: On Instagram at Ian Michael, Ian Michael, Lrenda.
Speaker 1: At Laurinda Underscore Me too Deadly? All right, be mo
Speaker 1: bu