He Dreamed a Train and Eve

Writer / performer Margi Brown Ash chats to Kiesten McCauley.

There are a lot of reasons to look up to Margi Brown Ash. Her latest feat is definitely worth the admiration. In an exclusive first, she’ll be performing a rare double bill at Brisbane Powerhouse. There aren’t many performers with the drive and energy to throw themselves into back to back shows. However, Margi and her son Travis will be performing the extremely personal and critically acclaimed He Dreamed a Train, followed by the award-winning Eve from the 29^th of June. Naturally I questioned her sanity for choosing to do two shows in a row.

“I think that it’s because I’ve been in performance all my life,” she revealed. “People do triathlons, you know what I mean? But also both of those stories, there’s actually three…”

The third to which Margi is referring is Home, which last played at Queensland Theatre in 2015.

“Home is part of the trilogy. So there’s Home and then there’s Eve and then there’s He Dreamed a Train.”

“They’re not related in any way as far as story but they’re very related as far as themes,” she confessed, “So it’s about ‘How do we belong?’. That’s my question and that’s been my research forever. How do we belong? How do we do it? And there are times when we get ruptured, that we don’t belong and then how do we come back to belonging? So it’s an exploration of that.

“There’s a line in all three of my plays I think that says, ‘What is fact? What is fiction? What is truth?’ I’m constantly challenging what is truth and what is illusion and that’s been with me all of my life too. I can remember as a first year university student, we were studying Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the question was “What is the difference between reality and illusion?” and that’s actually journeyed right through my life.”

He Dreamed a Train (inspired by and named after her brother David Brown’s book) is a very personal story for Margi. While not exactly mirroring her family’s journey, the tale centres around a sister and brother as they struggle with his terminal illness and passing.

Margi told me, “It seemed the obvious thing for me to write a play about it rather than just sit on my ass, twiddling my thumbs. I think that was because I needed to create new meaning. I needed to understand how do you move on, when something like this happens. Because it’s a terminal illness, it wasn’t death and so it’s several years and he’s now at a stage where he’s at the end of the illness. So to witness this slow deterioration is heartbreaking and the play explores that. Even though Eve was inspired by Eve Langley, it also explores death. All three shows explore death.”

Eve is the story of woman more passionate about the art of writing than the art of parenting. She feels trapped by the life and expectations of being a wife and mother. Margi told me this latest performance of the show will be different to its past incarnation as a three-hander. Margi will still be playing Eve while her talented son Travis will combine the role of storyteller and musician.

Margi said, “It’s very hard to find a performer who is a very fine musician and also an actor as well. I’m really looking forward to seeing how that unfolds; that’s going to change that play a lot.”

It’s not just Eve that’s evolved. Those who’ve seen He Dreamed a Train before need not stay away, as the script was undergoing one of many rewrites when I arrived to speak with Margi.

“I always re-write every show,” Margi said, “Every show I re-write, every time I get a new season I re-write and we’ve always done that.”

“I want to urge people to come again,” she enthused, “Because what you can see is how when independent work is supported like ours is, you get to refine a piece of work.”

“Even though people adored the plays before, they are going to be better. They are going to be more refined. They are going to be more thought through. Even though years of work have been done on them before, it just provides that next level.”

He Dreamed a Train and Eve can be seen as a double bill at Brisbane Powerhouse from 29^th June until 16^th July 2017.

brisbanepowerhouse.org

He Dreamed a Train

Cast Margi Brown Ash and Travis Ash

Director / Set & AV Designer Benjamin Knapton

Production / Stage Manager & AV System Freddy Komp

A/V Content Nathan Sibthorpe

Sound Designer Travis Ash

Lighting Designer Geoff Squires

Set Builder Aaron Barton

Pyrotechnician Frans Vogel

Producer Verity Woodford

Marketing Yvonne Henry

Publicist Tania Stibbe

Eve

Writer & Co-Deviser Margi Brown Ash

Director & Co-Deviser Leah Mercer

Co-Deviser Daniel Evans

Performers Margi Brown Ash and Travis Ash

Design Aaron Barton

Costume Designer Bev Jensen

Sound Designer Travis Ash

Producer Verity Woodford

Marketing Yvonne Henry

Publicist Tania Stibbe

Lighting Designer Geoff Squires