The Play's the Thing: The Inside Guide to Playreadings

The Cybec Readings are now being presented at the MTC Theatre, Lawler Studio for the third year.

Paul Galloway, Melissa Reeves and Robert Reid have all had work produced either by MTC or other major theatre companies.

Reykjavik, Happy Ending and Eating Alone typify the great range, diversity and depth of writing we have right here in Melbourne.

For the writers, play readings mark a turning point in the development of their work, giving them a chance to hear their words spoken and see an audience respond before honing the script further.

From the audience’s point of view, it’s a chance to catch a great new play hot off the press.

We chat to Paul, Robert and Melissa about their process, what a reading is and why they're important.

How long did you take to write the first draft?

First drafts take me a long time. This is partly due to my method of writing, which consists of writing the first scene and fiddling endlessly with it until I am satisfied before moving onto the second scene.

After the process is repeated with the second scene, I go back and rewrite the first scene. Then I rewrite the second scene in light of the new changes to the first scene. Then I go to the third scene and the process repeats itself – thus writing a play starts off slowly and gets much, much slower. I am surprised that I finish plays at all. Only Zeno of Elea could approve of this process!

The other reason for taking a long time is that I have a day job. I write for a mere two-and-a-half hours each day before going to work, plus a few hours on weekends. I began this play on (appropriately) April Fools’ Day 2010 and finished the first draft in mid-August 2011. In this, I don’t mention the research period before I even started writing.

It’s said that Chess the musical by ABBA is loosely based on Bobby Fischer who’s also one of the main characters in Reykjavik. What is it about Bobby?

He was a freak and many people find freakiness alluring. Perhaps they think something general about humanity can be understood by observing Fischer. In my opinion, you won’t see anything by staring hard into a vacuum. Bobby Fischer was a brilliant chess mind and little more. Ordinary human qualities, he had none. Temperamental, narcissistic and emotionally stunted, he was essentially a spoilt child who’s intelligence encompassed little more than the behaviour of 32 lumps of wood on 64 squares. 

In my play, in which he is a secondary character, he is compared unfavourably with the Soviet champ Boris Spassky, who was his equal in chess ability but was in all other respects normal – that is, human and flawed. Now, I prefer my heroes to be human, which is why the play focuses on Spassky.

Have you visited Reykjavik?

No, but my last play Realism was set in Moscow in the 1930s and I have neither been to Moscow nor the 1930s. So I confess to having form in writing about things I know nothing about. I know that Reykjavik is in Iceland, the people there are very nice and there’s a lot of lava about. Any statement beyond this would be pure conjecture on my part. (Incidentally, while we’re on broad issues such as my ignorance, I know almost nothing about chess.)

Do you take notes during a public reading of your script?

Yes, I will note when the audience laughs, or when they don’t when I expected them to, or when they seem restless or bored. I might scribble down a note for an extra line or a cut. But if it seems to be going well, I am likely (and I have form on this as well) to start enjoying the play as if it were knew to me.

Eating Alone by Robert Reid

What’s the first thing that went through your mind when you heard that The Joy of Text (part of the 2010 Cybec Readings series) was selected to be part of MTC’s 2011 mainstage season?

The urge to redraft.

What kind of a theatre space do you hope this play would end up?

I think it'd suit an intimate space where you can be close to the performers.  The Lawler will be good for that but so would Belvoir for instance.

At a play reading, is it more important to pay close attention to how the actors deliver your text or how the audience reacts to it?

They're both important of course but, for me, the audience is the most important thing. Listening to the way they react, laugh, gasp, shift in their seats, breathe... you learn so much from these readings, particularly when you've got the audience's attention and when not. Any new work that's destined for the stage, in my opinion, should go through this process no matter how experienced the playwright.

What made you want to write on the topic of Anorexia?

It’s an issue that needs to be talked about right now.  Not just anorexia, but the distortion of image and identity. The fetishisation of consumption and vicarious asceticism of shows like Masterchef and The Biggest Looser.  The conditional and contradictory nature of the messages we receive daily from the diet, exercise and beauty industries. These things need to be challenged and interrogated.

Happy Ending by Melissa Reeves

Who is the first person to read one of your new plays?

It varies. The first person to read Happy Ending was Aiden Fennessy, who had commissioned it.

What’s the last great play reading that you attended?

The last great play-reading I attended was the Playwrights conference in Sydney – three days of non-stop play-reading. It happens in Melbourne next year. It’s a terrific event.

You say your play is about desire, obsession and laziness.

Do you think these attributes always leads to trouble? Desire doesn’t always lead to trouble, but it can. Obsession, ditto, Laziness always leads to trouble.

Happy Ending is quite sexy. How do you expect audiences will react?

Hopefully it will give them pleasure.

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