The Seed Staged Reading Program

Love Cupboard: Live-In Lover

Live-In Lover

Courtney Boot

“What if you loved someone so much you were willing to give up the rest of the world and live in a cupboard just to be with them?” This is the question posed both rhetorically and literally in Emma Gibson’s new play Love Cupboard, launching the 2010 Made in Canberra season at the Street Theatre this month.

“The idea came to me late at night when I was half-watching TV and thought a subtitle said ‘Love Cupboard’,” explains Gibson. “It didn’t, but I thought it was such an interesting title I had to write it down.”

The play centres on Warren (Scott Cummings), and his 12-years-younger, claustrophilic girlfriend Annabel (Hanna Cormick). Annabel’s parents disapprove of her dating a man so much older and order her to break up with Warren. Infatuated, immature and desperate, Annabel does the opposite – she moves into his cupboard.

There are echoes of the story of Queensland teen Natasha Ryan, who ‘disappeared’ for several years and was the subject of an extended police investigation, only to be discovered living in her boyfriend’s walk-in-wardrobe. For Gibson, though, the bizarre reality of the story is underlined by the symbolic opportunities it opens.

“It’s both a physical cupboard and a metaphor for how people can become trapped,” explains Gibson. “People can choose to trap themselves in a situation.”

In this case, both sides are trapped – Annabel by her immaturity, and by the fantasy life she plays out during her lonely days in the cupboard, and Warren by his complicity in Annabel’s decision.

The play is receiving its ‘premiere’ performance launching the Street Theatre’s 2010 Made in Canberra season, a performance opportunity in which Gibson is proud to be involved. “It’s really exciting,” says Gibson. “It really does bring interesting and exciting works to the stage. Having the support from the Street Theatre means we can realize our vision.”

No mean feat, given the difficulties of staging new work in a field of tough professional competition. “It’s really hard to get a start,” says Gibson. “There’s only one David Williamson.”

“It’s rare to find really solid support behind you from a theatre organization. I think it has a really positive impact on the local theatre scene.”

Although this is its official debut, Love Cupboard is now several years (and rewrites) old. Gibson worked with dramaturg Peter Matheson at the Street, and took the play to the World Interplay young playwrights festival in Cairns in 2009, workshopping it into shape with the help of international mentors. “It’s amazing how much the script has changed and it continues to surprise me,” says Gibson. “It’s a lot darker. I hope people will be surprised by it.”

Love Cupboard opens at the Street as part of Made in Canberra on Thursday April 29, running to Sunday May 2.

King Lear - Bell Shakespeare 20th Anniversary: Property of Blood

This year Bell Shakespeare celebrates its 20th anniversary. In that time it has staged some 30 plays and performed to more than two million Australians. From a glam-rock inspired Antony and Cleopatra, to the classic Romeo and Juliet, and the 1998 Barrie Kosky extravaganza of King Lear, Bell Shakespeare has established itself as a theatrical icon. In a relatively short period of time, the company has changed Australia’s perceptions of Shakespeare, and converted schoolkids to Shakespeare fans across the country (I should know. I was one of them).

Actress Leah Purcell’s appreciation for Shakespeare came a little later in life. She couldn’t stand Shakespeare when she was at school.

“I fell asleep up the back!” Purcell laughs. “It was not that I didn’t like Shakespeare, I just never understood it. I thought it was a waste of time anyway – I’d never have to learn to talk upside down and back to front. I was convinced it wasn’t my cup of tea. But after working with John Bell, who is just a legend, I love Shakespeare now.”

In King Lear, opening soon at the Canberra Theatre Centre, Purcell plays daughter Regan to John Bell’s Lear. Bell Shakespeare cheekily describes it as a play filled with tips for coping with old age, retirement and ungrateful children, though it’s an understatement to say things don’t turn out well.

The ageing Lear prepares to retire from his position and in dividing his kingdom, asks his three daughters how much they each love him. The two older sisters, Goneril and Regan, sing his praises to get what they want, but his youngest daughter Cordelia refuses to be obsequious and Lear disinherits her. From there, insanity, greed and betrayal set in, complete with eye-gouging and bodies littering the stage.

It’s a complex text and a challenge for any actor, but Purcell has embraced the challenges of her role. She says on the first day of rehearsals, she was apologetic because she was so intimidated to read opposite John Bell.

“On the first day we were all petrified. John opened his mouth and read the first two lines of the play and we were in awe because the man really knows Shakespeare. I’ve never worked with John before and didn’t know what he was like but he’s a really lovely man.”  Purcell says he has amazing energy on stage, which lifts her own performance. “In Act II, scene 4 he comes and wants to stay with me and I tell him no, go back to my sister. We really give it to him so that’s a real highlight. Then of course, I’m in the eye gouging scene. That’s pretty awesome. I get to throw guys around.

“I learnt so much with John. I was very open and said I don’t know much about Shakespeare. John just took me aside one day said, ‘I’m not going to bore you with theory. I’ll just teach you the tricks and have you talking like me in a week.’”

Purcell said she also had help wrapping her head around the language of Shakespeare in the website No Fear Shakespeare, which offers plain English versions of the plays. She recommends any first timers read it before seeing the play.

Purcell is down to earth and enthusiastic. She’s so enthusiastic about the show that she spends all our time talking about that and not her own personal achievements, which are impressive. Purcell is an award winning writer, director and actor, best known for her semi-autobiographical play Box the Pony, set in an Aboriginal community in Queensland. She worked previously with King Lear director Marion Potts in 2008 in The Story of the Miracles at Cookie's Table for which she won a Helpmann Award. But she’s always eager to learn more, and is enjoying seeing King Lear evolve on stage.

“It’s always changing. We find things in the script that we didn’t see before or someone reacts to something in a different way. It’s great. It means the play’s alive. It’s about us mortals finding all the tricks Shakespeare placed in there. It keeps it interesting for us,” she says. She also enjoys the simplicity of the staging.

“As an actor I prefer the open space and people interacting as opposed to lots of props and so forth. So there’s no hiding in Shakespeare. It’s about trusting yourself and the other actors. That’s why I’m so glad I did this role at 39, because I appreciated the lesson and got a lot more out of it.”

Also hitting the stage this year as part of the twentieth birthday celebrations is Twelfth Night, described by Bell Shakespeare as “the sort of thing that can happen when a man looks too much like his sister”, and Just Macbeth, by Andy Griffiths—he of My bum went psycho fame—which will no doubt appeal to its young target audience. Bell’s policy of tackling Shakespeare in different ways – such as in 2008’s stunning ‘remix’, Anatomy Titus, is one way the company has achieved such success in the last two decades.

“John had a vision and brought it to fruition and without the quality of work it couldn’t have lasted so long,” Purcell says. “There are people who appreciate the literature and Shakespeare’s form of writing. But Bell Shakespeare makes it accessible to everyone—they take it out to Aboriginal communities and young people all over Australia, making Shakespeare easy to grasp. They’re a great company to work for and they all work hard and they all believe in what they’re doing.”

Bell Shakespeare’s King Lear opens at the Playhouse, CTC, on April 15. Tickets through Canberra Ticketing on 6275 2700.