Editorial: Tommy Murphy

Dream List: what plays should we be reading, putting on and going to see?

Barrie Kosky and Tom Wright’s The Women of Troy. I think this is the most successful theatrical response to recent war images - although, I’d have to count Baghdad Wedding by Hassan Abdulrazzak along with that. I’m keen to read the next plays of Nick Payne, Penelope Skinner and Molly Davies who I had the pleasure of working alongside last year at the Royal Court. Some Australian writers I admire are Lally Katz, Kate Mulvany, Anthony Weigh, Stephen Sewell, Sue Smith and Debra Oswald.

Describe your first theatrical epiphany

At 15 or so I was the assistant to the assistant stage manager for an amateur show in my hometown of Queanbeyan (which is near Canberra). The epiphany came when I was struck by a simple fact: the play being staged was original. A local man named Gunnar Isaacson, a retired documentary maker from Sweden, was the playwright and instantly I saw that plays were not only things from far away or another time. In that moment, backstage in a community hall, I saw how plays could be raw and immediate and I instantly set about trying to write them. Gunnar helped me get them staged.

Who would you invite to your fantasy theatrical dinner party?

Is it a living or dead thing? I’d want Beckett. It’d be remiss to not invite Sophocles and Shakespeare, at least to drinks at the end of the meal. Caryl Churchill if it’s dinner with living theatremakers. I’ve got to know Mark Ravenhill during my time here in London. I long to hear more of what Mark has to say. And he can cook which would help me. Martin McDonagh, Enda Walsh, Barrie Kosky, Cate Blanchett, Robert Lepage, Ariane Mnouchkine… Well, sounds like fun.

What are your career highlights so far?

My play Strangers in Between was remounted for a national tour in 2008. The first stop was a brand spanking new theatre in my hometown. We christened the place. Taking a bow with the cast in Queanbeyan that night will remain my career highlight. The tour ended in Tasmania at the oldest (European) theatre space in Australia. That was a nice bookend, having kicked off the newest theatre in the country.

What's the strangest experience you've had in the theatre?

Holding the Man, my play that is on in London presently, is adapted from a memoir. When the play premiered in a small theatre in Sydney, the audience was crammed with the real life people being depicted on stage. The Stables Theatre is similar to The Bush in a way because the audience looks in on each other across the stage. I spent the entire time watching these real life faces, hoping I had done my duty, knowing I had sometimes tampered with the facts in search of the truth, wondering if they would lynch me afterwards. They didn’t. They were kind. But it remains a strange experience for a playwright.

Who is your favourite actor of all time?

Cate Blanchett. She is one of the most inspiring people I have encountered. I have seen her on stage a few times now and I’m really looking forward to the Uncle Vanya that she will act in later this year.

Who is the greatest influence on your career?

David Berthold, the director of Holding the Man, has been my long time collaborator. When I started out he was more of a mentor and I guess he still takes that role (even though I’m getting long in the tooth). We met via a young playwrights’ award when I was 16. I’ve become quite dependent on the ongoing conversation we have been having for nearly half my life now. Sometimes it’s hard to trace whether the ideas are found on the page or the stage and I like that.

Where do you want to be in 5 years time?

Experimenting with form. Maybe it will still be theatrical forms that enthuse me in five years but I’ve got a secret ambition to write for film.

What' s the best thing you've ever seen at the theatre?

I saw Phare Ponleu Selpak, an acrobatic troupe from Cambodia, perform in Hong Kong a few years back. Not only was the show visually mesmerising, it combined this jaw dropping physicality with a clever and thought-provoking narrative. The troupe had met in a refugee camp and that was part of the story they told.

What are you up to at the moment?

Holding the Man opens this week at Trafalgar One, so when that’s up I’ll be flying home to Sydney for the last wave of development on my new play Gwen in Purgatory. Gwen, aged 90, is wrestling for control over her life in her remaining few years. Purgatory is a new townhouse on the outskirts of Queanbeyan. Gwen can’t seem to work the remote control for the air-conditioning or the garage door- then there’s the matter of her loveless family - the microwave and telephone are beyond her, and not even the parish priest can help. It’s the most realist play I have written. The idea dictated that. My protagonist is trapped in this place; so the play wanted to be a single unbroken scene.

Biography: Tommy Murphy

Strangers in Between (2005) and Holding the Man (2006) premiered at Griffin Theatre Company, Sydney, where Tommy was writer residence. These plays won the NSW Premier’s Award in successive years. Holding The Man was remounted in 2007 before transferring to Sydney Opera House, Company B Belvoir, Melbourne Theatre Company and Brisbane Powerhouse. Holding the Man also won the 2007 Australian Writers’ Guild Award (AWGIE) and the Philip Parsons Award. It opens on the West End in May 2010 at Trafalgar Studios.

Saturn's Return' premiered at the Sydney Theatre Company Wharf 2 in 2008 and transferred to the main stage in 2009. His other works include young people’s theatre pieces Troy's House (1997), Precipice (2007) and an adaptation of Marlowe's Massacre at Paris (2001).

Tommy is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (Director's Course).  Gwen in Purgatory premieres in 2010 for Company B Belvoir and La Boite, directed by Neil Armfield.