9/11 Themed Ravenhill Play for Sydney Fringe

9/11 Themed Ravenhill Play for Sydney Fringe

Left of Centre in association with The New What Next presents Product by Mark Ravenhill for the Sydney Fringe Festival.

When Amy, a 9/11 Widow, falls in love with an al-Qaeda terrorist, it forces her to question everything she’s known to be true in this world...

Far fetched you say?

Major sponsor ‘Versace’ doesn’t think so. And neither does James, a verbally dexterous Film Producer, who is pitching this willbeblockbuster to ‘flavour of the month’ film actress Olivia.

We spoke to Tom Christophersen, who plays the role of James.

What attracts you to Mark Ravenhill’s writing?

There are so many things that attract me to Ravenhill’s writing. Primarily, the guy uses language like a sort of wonderful flamboyant renegade, with the power to provoke both hysterical laughter and crying within a line. The sheer capacity of the man’s intelligence teemed with his knowledge and capacity to comment on popular culture, sexuality, art and theatre at the same time as providing a totally engaging plot for these ideas to exist within, makes him one of my favourite playwrights.

Product started out as a solo piece, performed by the writer. I notice there are two performers.

Ravenhill first performed the role of James with another actor on stage playing the part of Olivia  – the role of the willbestarlett who is pitched to, as a sort of warm body. In our production we have taken this format but reincorporated Olivia’s emotional presence and reactions into the telling of the story. As an ensemble, we agreed that Olivia was a key component to our construction of the play.

How do you expect audiences to relate to the play and your character?

James is a can of worms who you will either loathe or love, or possibly both. I hope audiences are taken on a journey to a place which is not dissimilar from their own lives, and are invited, sometimes kindly, sometimes belligerently to form an opinion about where they stand on the themes presented in the show: entertainment, art and terrorism. I also hope they laugh and cry so hard that something is wet after the hour.

What do you most relate to about your character?

Obviously both James and I are gay, but, surprisingly I think the thing I find most relatable about James’ character would be his commitment to his craft. On the page James’ can be read like a total charactateure, somewhere between Patsy Stone and Oscar Wilde. Yes he is nightmarish and at times, unbearable but he is also charming, sensitive and thoughtful. Finding a real motivation for the eccentricity behind the character led me to seeing the parts of James’ that live inside me. We both want to do a good job, we both want to make something memorable and we both will not stop at nothing to achieve our goals… although I don’t think I’m as maniacal in the process. Well, I hope not.

What sort of resonances does this 9/11 themed play have on the tenth anniversary?

Throughout James’ pitch 9/11 is used constantly in the script as both a metaphor for emotional and physical chaos and as an antagonistic force providing the conflict. However, the play is not solely ‘about’ 9/11. It could have just as easily been about the Tsunami or even Pompeii, but in our lives, it is the biggest example of unexplained terror we have experienced. We saw the buildings fall and Ravenhill knows this. If anything 9/11 is a genius device to instantaneously make the action in his play – which reads like a Greek Tragedy, believable to an audience, today.

Productwill play at The Reginald Theatre, The Seymour Centre during the first week of the Sydney Fringe Festival - 13 - 17 September @ 7pm

Bookings:  02 9351 7940 | http://sydney.edu.au/seymour/

Win Tickets

Competition over. We have our two winners, Darren Smith and Sharni Edwards.

Win a double pass to Product on Wednesday September 14 at 7pm  (2 double passes available).

The Challenge: Explain why you would like to see this play in ten words or less.

Competition deadline has passed so it's enough to say I would like to attend.

To enter, visit our contact form http://www.stagewhispers.com.au/contact and type Product in the subject field. Then type your answer as a message. Our favourite entries win.

Entries close: 7pm, September 12, 2011.

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