Speaker 1: We all kind of identify a little bit with Darryl
Speaker 1: saying to sell you know.
Speaker 2: What if all this life's chicken, what's on it?
Speaker 3: Got something sprinkled on it?
Speaker 1: Seasoning?
Speaker 4: Seasoning From The Australian. This is the weekend edition of
Speaker 4: The Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's the endlessly quotable film
Speaker 4: that captured Australia's soul almost thirty years ago, and now
Speaker 4: The Castle is hoping to capture the hearts of a
Speaker 4: new generation. The Kerrigan families Fight for their beloved home
Speaker 4: is coming to the stage in a new play from
Speaker 4: the Castle's creators. They say there'll be a few modern updates,
Speaker 4: but it's the same story Australians know and love. Tim
Speaker 4: Douglas is The Australian's chief culture correspondent. Tim, I've known
Speaker 4: you for a long time. I can't believe I've never
Speaker 4: asked you this. What's your favorite line from The Castle?
Speaker 1: Great question, Claire. It's a topical one because it involves
Speaker 1: beef Wellington. But when Conn and Trace go to Thailand
Speaker 1: on their honeymoon, someone asked what they had to eat
Speaker 1: on the plane and they say it was beef Wellington
Speaker 1: and sal the mother explains what beef Wellington is and
Speaker 1: con says and it was an absolute credit to the airline.
Speaker 1: And I think the delivery of that line is just
Speaker 1: so perfect and says so much about Australia at that
Speaker 1: time and Middle Australia especially.
Speaker 4: My favorite, which I get asked a lot at home,
Speaker 4: is what do you call it?
Speaker 2: And she says results.
Speaker 4: Everybody cooks results down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but what do you do with It's what you
Speaker 2: do with it. It's what you do with it. It's
Speaker 2: so true.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, And I think that people perhaps of our
Speaker 1: era grew up in a time where rissolts were a
Speaker 1: regular thing at dinner, and there's a real slash of
Speaker 1: Australia that perhaps doesn't exist in the same way anymore.
Speaker 4: One of the beautiful things about the Castle was that
Speaker 4: it managed to actually that suburban life and that the
Speaker 4: little moments of suburban life without being patronizing or feeling
Speaker 4: sort of like the inner city elites kind of sneering
Speaker 4: at the suburbanizes, didn't it. And that's wide appeal to
Speaker 4: people who did actually live in the suburbs.
Speaker 2: That's the magic that is hard.
Speaker 4: To capture for people who, let's face it, are fear
Speaker 4: to kids, you know, drama students, theater actors making a
Speaker 4: show about real Australians.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 1: I've bean such a delicate balancing act to get that right,
Speaker 1: and I think they did get it right. But you know,
Speaker 1: of course, a bunch of university graduates and as you say,
Speaker 1: theater kids taking on middle Australia, perhaps in Australia that
Speaker 1: didn't belong to all of them might have been a
Speaker 1: risky play. But when I spoke to the cast this week,
Speaker 1: they're very keen to remind me that most of those
Speaker 1: stories come from the families, particularly of the Chelaro family,
Speaker 1: Santo Chillara's family, he of course is of Italian heritage,
Speaker 1: and Rob Sitch's family.
Speaker 5: The Chillara family has been a huge part of our
Speaker 5: professional lives. I mean half the stories came from well.
Speaker 6: He's pointing it me half of them came from In fact,
Speaker 6: that was a great thing about the film. It contained
Speaker 6: so many of our personal family stories and again now
Speaker 6: to bring that to the stage is a great privilege
Speaker 6: for us.
Speaker 1: And Rob Sitch has spoken before about his father being
Speaker 1: a great inspiration for Daryl Kerrigan and sitting around the
Speaker 1: dinner table and you know, pumping up his family in
Speaker 1: that very optimistic way that we see in a film.
Speaker 4: The Castle, Australia's most beloved movie, is now to become
Speaker 4: a stage play. It's a little bit of a scary
Speaker 4: time to be launching a new stage production in Australia.
Speaker 4: Just in recent months we've seen Beetlejuice, Back to the Future,
Speaker 4: even aida another musical Call Waitress kind of have to
Speaker 4: wrap up their seasons early or be canceled altogether. Why
Speaker 4: do you think they're confident that this is going to
Speaker 4: work well?
Speaker 1: This stage play has been in the offering for thirty
Speaker 1: years and so they've been working on it for a
Speaker 1: long time, especially the last two years. Theater probably was
Speaker 1: in the bounce back after COVID two years ago. As
Speaker 1: you say, there have been three major productions this year,
Speaker 1: including Beetle Juice, which was produced by Michael Castle Group.
Speaker 1: Our Castle Group is putting on The Castle. When I
Speaker 1: spoke to Tom Glarser about this being a potentially risky
Speaker 1: commercial move, he said, basically, well, all art is a risk,
Speaker 1: I think, and they think this too. Seemingly that there's
Speaker 1: enough love out there for this production, this film, this
Speaker 1: story that ticket sales will be pretty strong.
Speaker 3: And we just love people, as Jane said, not even
Speaker 3: not just your diehard theater goers, but people who maybe
Speaker 3: don't often go to the theater to come and celebrate
Speaker 3: all that is Carrigan with us.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my gut says that it's going to sell really well.
Speaker 2: I'm sure my family will want to go.
Speaker 4: Might have some results beforehand at the cafe around the corner.
Speaker 4: What will the Castle on stage in twenty twenty six be?
Speaker 4: Is it going to a remake of the movie or
Speaker 4: is it going to be updated?
Speaker 1: So when I first heard about it, I thought it
Speaker 1: might have been The Castle thirty years into the future.
Speaker 1: It's not that it's the story we know and love
Speaker 1: set in modern day framework. And so, as Tom said
Speaker 1: to us this week, Darryl is still a truck driver,
Speaker 1: but he works three days a week from home. You know,
Speaker 1: we might expect con the kickboxing champion to be an
Speaker 1: MMA fan, now, you know, will Dale Kerrigan be diggy
Speaker 1: holes in Minecraft? Who knows? They didn't want to give
Speaker 1: too much away, but there are so many great references
Speaker 1: that I think it'll be really interesting to see it
Speaker 1: transplanted into a modern day situation.
Speaker 3: And that's the sort of. That's the sort of fun
Speaker 3: we've had right throughout the script, and we actually think
Speaker 3: the fact that people many people know it so well,
Speaker 3: every little flip and piece of inventiveness will be hopefully
Speaker 3: a delight.
Speaker 4: Australia is so different to the country of thirty years ago,
Speaker 4: certainly in the kind of university educated arts, the elite world.
Speaker 4: But let's be honest, the people who normally go to
Speaker 4: theaters in habit Who do you think is going to
Speaker 4: be the audience for this.
Speaker 1: It's a great question because I think one of the
Speaker 1: interesting things about The Castle is whether the true thread
Speaker 1: of the story is nostalgia or whether it is the
Speaker 1: prevailing theme of the story itself, which is about the
Speaker 1: battle of taking on big corporations or big governments. And
Speaker 1: so I think certainly there's a lot of nostalgia for
Speaker 1: this film. I think the idea that it was made
Speaker 1: in ninety seven, a really interesting time for Australia. We know,
Speaker 1: floated the dollar, we're kind of emerging from the recession
Speaker 1: of the nineties. There's a lot of optimism, but it
Speaker 1: was still ahead of the dot com boom, and so
Speaker 1: there was a real innocence to it that I think
Speaker 1: we lost within five years of this film actually premiering,
Speaker 1: and by the time we're in the noughties. Of course,
Speaker 1: the film on constant reruns on Saturday nights and it
Speaker 1: was a big part of Australia.
Speaker 6: In summing up, it's the Constitution, it's Marbo, it's justice,
Speaker 6: it's law, it's the vibe, and no, that's it.
Speaker 3: It's the vibe.
Speaker 6: I rest my case.
Speaker 1: So I think that nostalgic effect is very strong. But
Speaker 1: I think there are still some notions of you know,
Speaker 1: the David and Goliath notions of this film that resonate
Speaker 1: with Australians today, even if it's on a very nascent level.
Speaker 1: As you say, Australia's a very different place and certainly,
Speaker 1: you know, houses a five times what they were in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven. Today there's a lot more difficult for
Speaker 1: you a family to make their home. Their castle might
Speaker 1: be someone else's castle, their renting and so the you know,
Speaker 1: the parallels exist, but the story is very different. So
Speaker 1: I think Gen X's and baby Boomer is going to
Speaker 1: love this. But I think the idea is to open
Speaker 1: up the castle and this great story of optimism and
Speaker 1: justice to a new generation I think is really exciting.
Speaker 4: Coming up. Could The Castle get a new generation going
Speaker 4: to the theater?
Speaker 2: There is a new generation going back to the movies.
Speaker 4: Now we're seeing gen Z's show up at cinemas in
Speaker 4: ways that they were not doing five or six years ago.
Speaker 4: That's really exciting. Maybe this will get them back to
Speaker 4: the theater as well, along with Mum and Dad.
Speaker 2: I hope.
Speaker 1: So, I mean, their Working Dog Team seems to think
Speaker 1: it's a great kind of family event, and I think
Speaker 1: given that shift in time, you know, they kind of
Speaker 1: almost Nolan like idea of transposing his story into the
Speaker 1: future might work on a cross generational sort of platform.
Speaker 4: So this is the Working Dog Team probably one of
Speaker 4: the most successful creative partnerships Australia's ever seen. They have created,
Speaker 4: at least for deeply beloved TV shows.
Speaker 2: The Castle is a film, an incredibly enduring success. Was
Speaker 2: The Castle their peak? Do you think they peak early?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: It was the work that they did after was with
Speaker 4: Utopia and Kapin Kim and Frontline.
Speaker 2: Able to live up to that certainly commercially.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a film that was made in
Speaker 1: ten days on a budget of seven hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars and it grossed ten million dollars at the
Speaker 1: Australian box office. It's hard to beat, especially, as you say,
Speaker 1: when they're in there, you know nascent form as filmmakers
Speaker 1: and TV show makers. Of course they follow it up
Speaker 1: with the dish are very sensitive and moving Australian story.
Speaker 2: Still not flat enough, Glenn, I'll give it a tweak.
Speaker 2: We're going to drop it down a couplic click's probably unnecessity.
Speaker 1: But I think the really interesting part about Working Dog
Speaker 1: is just I mean there's a clue in the title.
Speaker 1: I mean they are hard workers. The work ethic is incredible.
Speaker 1: I mean Rob Sitsch said to us this week, this
Speaker 1: script they've had for thirty years. They've been sitting on
Speaker 1: it because they've been procrastinating.
Speaker 5: We wrote a draft of a stage play like twenty
Speaker 5: five years ago and then rewrote it twenty years ago,
Speaker 5: and it was always fun to come back to. So
Speaker 5: it was it was probably more disorganization.
Speaker 6: And also going back even before then, we all met
Speaker 6: on stage. I mean stage was our first love. It
Speaker 6: is where we first built out all our stories, so
Speaker 6: it was it feels like it's the right way to
Speaker 6: go back.
Speaker 1: As you alluded to before, they've put out so many
Speaker 1: fantastic shows and such deep and clever and thoughtful programs.
Speaker 1: I think the work that has come after the Castle
Speaker 1: has been a lot more intellectual in a way. I mean,
Speaker 1: things like Utopia and The Holloman etc. Really kind of
Speaker 1: skewer a very narrow idea of Australian politics and government.
Speaker 5: So when you think of the Reserve Bank, what comes
Speaker 5: to mind.
Speaker 4: They meet on Tuesdays.
Speaker 5: No, they got inflation wrong, yes, but no, they're independent,
Speaker 5: thank you.
Speaker 1: But they've always managed to maintain this insight into Australia
Speaker 1: that I think there's no other team in the country
Speaker 1: that can do anything like what they do.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: Those political shows were kind of vicious satire of these
Speaker 4: soulless people running the place. They managed to capture again
Speaker 4: that kind of loving satire. I think with Frontline it
Speaker 4: was a takedown of commercial current affairs television, but in
Speaker 4: an incredibly well informed and I think really charming and
Speaker 4: loving way. Maybe this is my perspective of someone who
Speaker 4: works in the media, but it was so realistic and
Speaker 4: it was so true, and they didn't stint from exposing
Speaker 4: kind of the foibles of the people who work in
Speaker 4: that sector. But it was also lovable and charming, wasn't it?
Speaker 3: It really was.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'd been interested in your insights and your
Speaker 1: family has such deep connections to television and to present
Speaker 1: you know, what was it like in the Harvey household
Speaker 1: watching this show kind of skewer you know, this art form.
Speaker 2: That's it was breathtakingly realistic.
Speaker 4: I mean the fact that they kind of understood the
Speaker 4: dynamic between kind of hard working, overlooked producers and you know,
Speaker 4: presenters with massive inflated eCos who were obsessed with their
Speaker 4: own image, and then kind of gritty executive producers who
Speaker 4: all they really cared about was the ratings and behaving
Speaker 4: badly in their kind of downtime.
Speaker 5: Is anchor that announced the story and reflect what the
Speaker 5: audience are thinking. I sort of crystallized their reaction.
Speaker 6: Even when you haven't watched it in five Well.
Speaker 3: That's part of the skill.
Speaker 4: The characters that they created were so close to the bone,
Speaker 4: they were so real. They were real people working in
Speaker 4: Australian television at that time. I'd love them to do
Speaker 4: it again now, you know, in the worlds of social
Speaker 4: media and mainstream media, I haven't loved shows like Utopia
Speaker 4: or Hollow Men. I've worked close to government and close
Speaker 4: to the bureaucracy as well, and they seem to have
Speaker 4: a bit of darkness that I've found hard to watch. Actually,
Speaker 4: I didn't love Kapin Kim either. I found that tipped
Speaker 4: into the mockery of working class people in a way.
Speaker 4: They were so ridiculous that I felt it was it
Speaker 4: had lost that kind of gentle honoring I suppose of
Speaker 4: people who are guideless and innocent that the Castle had.
Speaker 6: There guys selling a pair of joust and sticks.
Speaker 3: Jost dad four point fifty but jousted sticks telling me dream.
Speaker 2: What did you think of Kapin Kim?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's a good point. I think in
Speaker 1: terms of the Castle, it's almost universally beloved of people.
Speaker 1: People from those suburbs where that film is set loved
Speaker 1: it because it tells their story. It tells a story
Speaker 1: that's familiar to them. You know, as we wrote this week,
Speaker 1: there's that familiar scent of two stroke they talk about
Speaker 1: it in the film that still hangs above suburban and
Speaker 1: Australia in a very visceral sort of way. Yeah, Cathink Kim,
Speaker 1: as you say, leaned into a less sentimental and a
Speaker 1: more ridiculous sort of idea of Australia. I mean, I still,
Speaker 1: I mean I love I'm a big Warning fan, so
Speaker 1: whenever Warn he made his cameo in that show. I
Speaker 1: loved every minute of it. But I think there are
Speaker 1: two very different lenses through which to see Australian culture.
Speaker 1: One is a very real and almost natural sort of portrayal.
Speaker 1: I can't watch it now, though probably it's probably fair
Speaker 1: to say it's probably something that I don't as my
Speaker 1: go to, yeah, but at the time I got to
Speaker 1: kick out of it.
Speaker 4: It's funny how fast I stand it's changed for television,
Speaker 4: isn't it. You know, things date really quickly, although the
Speaker 4: great classics of the eighties and early nineties haven't dated.
Speaker 4: I've been on a jag of watching the the eighties
Speaker 4: classics with my kids, you know, Beverly Hills, cop and Kindergarten.
Speaker 2: Corp And Twins and all the big movies. I mean,
Speaker 2: that was a golden age of cinema that certainly in
Speaker 2: Australia we have not recaptured.
Speaker 4: You know. The Castle came at a time when Australia
Speaker 4: was making a lot of kind of great fun movies,
Speaker 4: heist movies and great Australian stories that we're not really
Speaker 4: doing now as far as I can see.
Speaker 2: No, it was right.
Speaker 1: And I think even with my kids these days, when
Speaker 1: they watch a film, it's so loud and it's so
Speaker 1: big and brash, and there's not a lot of soft, gentle,
Speaker 1: thoughtful films that are made with especially with children or
Speaker 1: families in mind. Everything's got swearing or something like my parents,
Speaker 1: but you know, for sex and swearing and violence, and
Speaker 1: I don't think it holds their attentions in a way
Speaker 1: that it perhaps held ours. And maybe that's symptom two
Speaker 1: of the sort of screen heavy lives our kids lead
Speaker 1: these days. But now I think you're right. I don't
Speaker 1: think there's been a film that approximates it in kind
Speaker 1: of universality, since there's been nothing that has come near
Speaker 1: the Castle Dale, I reckon we're the luckiest family in
Speaker 1: the world.
Speaker 6: Serenity.
Speaker 4: Well, I hope it leads to a stampede of tickets.
Speaker 4: I'll be lining up to get my seats, me too,
Speaker 4: Thanks much. Tim Douglas is The Australian's chief culture correspondent.
Speaker 4: You can read his story about the Castle's next chapter
Speaker 4: at the Australian dot com dot au. This episode of
Speaker 4: the Front was hosted by me Claire Harvey and produced
Speaker 4: by Kristin Amiot. It's edited by Tiffany Demack. Thanks for
Speaker 4: joining us on the Front this week. Our team also
Speaker 4: includes Lea Sammerglue, Joshua Burton and Jasper League, who also
Speaker 4: wrote our theme