How to Drink Onstage Without Really Drinking

From a beer-hazy summer in a Carlton boarding-house to the wine on the dinner table of an erudite English family, Season 2012 has already seen plenty in the way of onstage inebriation. Watching talented actors performing drunkenness, from the tipsy to the rampant, you’d be forgiven for wondering if those were really just prop drinks in their hands. Rest assured, these are consummate professionals, consuming only the fake stuff. Curious, we asked the MTC Stage Management crew exactly what goes into onstage drinks, and they were happy to divulge their trade secrets, no plying necessary. Here are their suggestions for the making of fake booze.

Brian Lipson, Alison Bell and David Paterson in Tribes

For white wine, a simple drop of yellow food colouring in water does the trick. Slightly more exotic, red wine can be substituted with blackcurrant or grape juice, plus a dash of blue food colouring. Non-alcoholic beer can be found at the supermarket, otherwise sparkling apple juice is a convincing alternative. Champagne is a tricky one as it can require a ‘pop’ – this problem is solved by using unopened bottles of sparkling grape juice. Although, if a bottle-opening moment is not required, flutes of soda water with a dash of lime juice can be just as believable as the real thing.

With a play featuring a tyrannical Irish grandfather, The Seed, opening this week at the Fairfax, we’d be remiss not to mention whiskey. While the expressions on the actors’ faces may have you convinced they’re drinking down some truly fiery stuff, our sources tell us it is likely to be cold tea or apple juice, or even watered-down cola cordial, in those glasses.

Tony Martin, Max Gillies and  Sara Gleeson in The Seed

There are no hard and fast rules to concocting stage drinks, but while different Stage Managers may have their own methods, there are a couple of things they always need to keep in mind. Crucially, nothing too sugary or caffeinated should go into a fake drink as this could dry out an actor’s throat. And of course it is the duty of any responsible mixologist to ask the cast what they’d prefer. After all, they’re the ones who'll be drinking the stuff night after night.

Bottoms up.

The wonderful world of props

When you take your seat in the theatre and the lights go down, a new world opens in front of you. Depending on the play, you could find yourself in the present day or a hundred years ago; in the same city or halfway around the world; in reality or somewhere completely unknown. There's a great deal of effort that goes into creating that world, and making the audience believe it. The sets and costumes are of course a key part of this, but sometimes it's the tiniest details - the things that almost go unnoticed - that make the difference between an audience willingly suspending belief and going on a journey, or staying firmly grounded in their seats.

Sometimes in the background and other times at the centre of the action, props are a vital part of every production. From the salt and pepper shakers on the sideboard to the swords in a duel, each has an important part to play. Depending on the prop itself and the era it needs to represent, a prop could have been bought at the supermarket, found in an antique shop, sourced online, bought at auction, or made in-house by our fantastic props team. Over the years, we've accumulated quite an assortment, which can now be found in the props storeroom at MTC HQ, all grouped together by type.

We have suitcases...

...vintage beer...

...regal seats ...

... and airplane seats ...

... spare change ...

... a pixelated bike (who doesn't want one of these) ...

... and even a cow or two...

While the majority of props are safely tucked away in the store room, some of them can be found around the building, being well used and loved by staff. For example, remember the stunning red lips-shaped couch from Rockabye?

photo: Jeff Busby

It now lives in the Level One foyer at HQ.

What about the table from August: Osage County?

photo: Jeff Busby

The 'fish bitch table', as it is lovingly referred to - due to the line 'Eat the fish, bitch!' which is shouted by Barbara (Jane Menelaus) to her mother Violet (Robyn Nevin) during a dinner scene - now lives in our Development department, and the Marketing, Publicity, Sponsorship and Philanthropy teams often sit here for lunch. Not a lot of fish is eaten though.

What props do you remember most from your visits to the theatre? Let us know and we'll see if we can find them and share their story.

Five minutes with: playwright Kate Mulvany

We're pretty excited that five of our twelve mainstage productions this year are Australian works. Hot on the heels of the classic Summer of the Seventeenth Doll comes The Seed by Kate Mulvany. This gripping exploration of the family fable is based on Kate's personal story, and we spoke to her about the experience of writing about it, and preparing to share it with audiences.

Kate Mulvany

The play touches on the emotionally toxic effects of war, along with the chemically toxic. Was it difficult to ask and to hear about war from a veteran’s perspective, but then also to write openly about your personal experience, knowing it would all be shared publicly? Or was it somewhat cathartic?

The most important thing to me during the development of the piece was that I got my facts absolutely right. And that was hard, because veterans and their families are deliberately told very little about their health issues – mine included.  So I tried to keep my emotions very much in check. I didn’t want personal emotion to get in the way of truth. I didn’t want to write an ‘angry, political play’. I loathe angry, political plays!

However, it didn’t take long to find my family’s story being repeated over and over in the stories of the Vietnam veterans and their families that I interviewed. It was an infuriating, enlightening, heartbreaking, horrifying, and life-changing experience. It was an odd mix of being relieved my family were not alone, but furious that so many families were living with these toxic and chemical demons, unsupported by their country, their health system...

And so I wrote a play, full of life, love and humour, about the toxic tragedy of war within a family. Looking back, I probably didn’t experience catharsis until after The Seed began and veterans, their families and the general public came in droves to see it and share their feelings. The veterans would say, 'Thank you.' The general public would say, 'We had no idea this was happening.'  Either way, people listened and now they know. That brings me great catharsis.

You’ve said that The Seed sees 'three very different soldiers spend a funny and frightening day together with their demons and dreams' – can you elaborate a little more on that?

I guess it’s a challenge, first and foremost, on what it is to be a ‘soldier’. Are you still considered one after you’ve completed the battle? Or do you become even more of a soldier when the battle continues inside your brain, inside your body, within your conscience? In The Seed, we have a Vietnam veteran, an IRA soldier and a character who has never stepped foot on a battlefield, yet deals with the generational consequences of war on a daily basis. Is she a soldier? I believe so.

But humour and horror are vital elements to getting the story right (and giving people a great night in the theatre) and so The Seed is both ‘funny and frightening’. Partly because that makes an audience come along for the ride, but mostly because a family of soldiers will rely on a certain gallows humour to get them through any reunion.

Max Gillies in rehearsal. Image by Pam Kleeman.

The laptop that you first started writing the play on was stolen – which must have been an awful experience – how do you manage your script-writing now?

Oh, God. I email myself everything. And I get my techno-whiz boyfriend to put it on every hard drive available within a 20km radius of our house.

We’ve heard that the play is currently being adapted to film, with a potential UK season on the cards – can you confirm this?

My lips are sealed, but fingers crossed. (Who said Australians don’t have stories to share with the world...?)

You played the role of Rose in the initial productions and the tour – will it feel strange to watch someone else in the role this time? Or are you looking forward to it?

Funnily enough, even for the initial production I was my own fifth choice! I really didn’t want to play Rose, but I am so glad now that I did. Performing in The Seed for so long was fabulous, exhilarating and exhausting and I’m so ready to hand over the reins. I’ve never actually seen the show! I simply cannot wait to sit down with the audience and watch it with my family. And Sara Gleeson is every writer’s dream. I know she’ll make Rose bloom.

Sara Gleeson with Tony Martin in rehearsal. Image by Pam Kleeman

The play is incredibly moving, and shows that the effects of war last far longer, and touch far more people than we might realise, or visibly recognise. As the playwright, and an autobiographer, what would you want to share with people who aren’t sure whether to see the play, for fear it might hit too close to home?

I can tell you this – whether you come from a family of soldiers like I do, or you are a theatre-goer that just wants a good story – The Seed will make you laugh and break your hearts, often at the same time.

I didn’t write The Seed to wag my finger at society or politics. I wanted to make people think and feel and talk. (Isn’t that what theatre is about anyway?)  The difference between The Seed and many other plays is that what you are watching is absolute truth. The people exist. The problems are real. The characters you are watching on stage may in fact be right beside you in the next seat. The conversation is long overdue, and I encourage you to take part. And although there are some moments that may hit people hard, The Seed was written from a place of hope, love, pride and truth. I wrote it wanting the audience to come out with their chests beating, their minds open and their heads held high, and I know in the hands of our wonderful cast and crew, that’s exactly what you’ll get.

Sara Gleeson with Max Gillies in rehearsal. Image by Pam Kleeman.

The Seed plays from 17 February to 4 April at Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio.

Tribes: 'An exciting challenge'

Director Julian Meyrick speaks to Paul Galloway about working on the UK smash-hit

Tribes, the new play by British writer Nina Raine, leaps into action as if from a pistol shot. The lights come up on a family at the table in their North London home in the middle of a normal – normal to them – dinner discussion. Loud, bickering, badgering, bruising. Funny, too. The father Daniel leads the cacophony, mixing argument, opinion and insult, but almost everyone gives as good they get. This family doesn’t hold back. Bam! – Raine just lets the audience have it.

‘I have to say that the first thirty-five minutes of the play, from an acting and directing point of view, will be hard work,’ Meyrick says. ‘The audience are still trying to work out what colour the set is and here you have the actors hammering away at each other. But the dramatic beginnings of the play must slowly emerge out of the fireworks at the start. Out of the smoke and noise, an audience must learn certain things to carry them through to the rest of the story. It’s a terribly exciting challenge.’

Actors Sarah Peirse and Brian Lipson rehearse Nina Raine's blistering dialogue

‘I didn’t know Nina’s work much,’ he says. ‘I only knew [her previous play] Rabbit, really. But when I read Tribes I felt she was, to an extent, part of the movement in British writing that always interested me. The Monsterists were a group of young writers, a few years ago now, all writing in different styles, trying to bring the edginess you’d find in many of the smaller theatres and opening it up for a larger stage. This is what Tribes does: it’s a relatively small play but casts an epic shadow. The contrast to make is with a play such as Orphans, which I saw at Red Stitch the other night. I mean, it is a terrific play but by no means a mainstage drama. It’s a small, intense experience. But Tribes, I have to say, has a series of movements in it, which really defy simple analysis. It seems to unfold in a very organic way from a small portrait that focuses on the family to incorporate all sorts of feelings and ideas and everything, the whole box and dice.’

The play is thick with dramatic ironies, the central one being that, in this family of non-listeners, one
son is deaf. Meyrick, who has always enjoyed skiing off-piste with his casting choices (notably a couple of seasons ago with his indigenous cast in Pinter’s The Birthday Party), had to find a young deaf actor to play the son, Billy. After a long search, hearing-impaired actor Luke Watts was selected for the role.

Actors Luke Watts and Alison Bell using sign language in rehearsals

‘It was the aspect that made me say yes to the project straight away,’ he says. ‘I would probably have said yes anyway because of its excellence as a play and it’s well within the body of work that I have done for MTC, but I’m always looking for ways that the casting envelope can be pushed. I like to combine actors who know the MTC oeuvre with those who come in from the outside. They create great conversations and chemistry.’

At various points in this play about communicating and connecting with others, Raine asks for electronic subtitles, as you might see at a special performance for the hearing-impaired, to support the action. It’s a technique that Meyrick thinks will be effective because the writer is very strict with its use.

‘She uses these theatrical aids only so far as it will serve the drama. And as I’m saying that, my heart warms to her! Because that has been an issue over the past ten or fifteen years, how some writers – though obviously writers have not been the chief culprits, some directors have been worse – have often used these effects as a substitute for drama. Yet in Tribes they are absolutely right. They are one of the many means by which the story gets told. And this is why, were I wearing one, I would take my hat off to her.’

Tribes by Nina Raine plays at the Sumner Theatre from 4 February to 14 March.
To see more images from the rehearsal rooms, visit our website.

Exploring the archives: Richard III

With over 50 years of theatre productions under our belt, there's no shortage of interesting treasures to be found around the halls of MTC HQ. During a recent visit to our wardrobe department, we discovered the shoes Ewen Leslie wore as Richard of Gloucester in our our 2010 production of Richard III. Ewen's characterisation of Richard involved wearing a brace on his left leg, and dragging the leg fiercely whenever he moved. After 13 weeks of portraying the deformity, the effects on his body were very real - he experienced atrophy in his left calf muscle, as he recently told The Age. And when you look at the shoes, it's not hard to believe!

Our dedicated wardrobe team would build the shoes up regularly to make them look as-new (or as-complete-as-possible), using a product similar to what skateboarders use to repair the soles of their shoes. But as you can see, it didn't last long. Some of the residue is visible on the shoe on the right in the images above - you can see how thickly they had to apply it!

Are there any props, sets or costumes from past MTC productions that you'd like to learn more about? Leave a comment below and we'll try to share their stories.

An historic night at the theatre

A note from our General Manager

Our 2012 Season officially began last night with the opening of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll at the Arts Centre Melbourne. It was an event of special significance for many reasons, as our General Manager Ann Tonks highlighted in an email to all MTC staff this morning.

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Last night was an historic night.

In the audience for the opening of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, were three of the five people who have been MTC Artistic Directors:

John Sumner
Ray Lawler
Roger Hodgman

along with our new Artistic Director Brett Sheehy.

Three people who have given us great productions of the Doll were also there:

John Sumner
Robyn Nevin
Neil Armfield

Travis McMahon, who plays Barney, played the young Barney in Robyn’s production of Kid Stakes in 1996, 16 years ago – which means that he’s aged with his character.

Fred Whitlock, the husband of Alison Whyte who plays Olive, played Johnny Dowd in Robyn’s version of the Doll in 1995 and he was there last night to see the show too.

How many theatre companies could have a moment like last night, when the founder of the first professional theatre company in Australia and the writer of an iconic Australian work - which still resonates with bravura emotional truth after nearly 60 years - were in the house?

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We are thrilled to be able to share this production with Melbourne audiences, following its sold-out season at Belvoir last year. The play that put Australian theatre on the world map has come home.

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is now playing at Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse until 18 February.

Revisiting the 1950's - The Cane Cutters

A note from Summer of the Seventeenth Doll playwright Ray Lawler

'The world of itinerant cane-cutters in Australia is now a thing of the past – together with the sort of hotel that catered for male drinkers only in the public bars, and relegated female customers to the side entrance marked ‘Ladies’ Parlour’. Indeed, so much has changed in terms of social attitudes and working practices since Summer of the Seventeenth Doll was written in 1953, that I thought it might be interesting to take a backward glance.

'Cane-cutting, for instance. A team of itinerant cane-cutters would come together at the beginning of the season, usually assembled by a recognised leader known as a ganger, on the understanding that the team would stay together for the seven-month season. The team would consist of eight or nine men, often young single males or older drifters, travelling by truck from cane farm to cane farm, cutting the harvest by hand at piece-work rates or for an agreed sum for the overall crop. The success of a full season would depend very much on the success and organisational ability of the ganger. He had to fulfil many functions, be able to bargain with the cane farmers on the team’s behalf, make sure that the pay and working conditions were satisfactory, and that the barracks supplied for the living quarters were of reasonable standard. On the team level, he would need to ensure the team was well-fed – a cook usually travelled as a member of the team – that they were kept as fit and well as possible, and that the morale of the team wasn’t undermined by the loneliness and circumstances of their nomadic life. Once a leader was known for these qualities, he would be a top ganger, and I saw Roo very much as this sort of man.'

Learn more about the life of a cane cutter in 1950's Queensland in this short film from the National Film and Sound Archive.


Video via Film Australia

This post is an excerpt from a piece by Ray Lawler that is published in our Summer of the Seventeenth Doll programme. The programme is available for purchase at Arts Centre Melbourne; be sure to grab a copy when you come to the play to read the full article.