Jonathan Biggins has been a co-director of the Wharf Revue for the Sydney Theatre Company since 2000. He brings his show, Australia Day, a production where nothing is sacred and our national identity is put through the ringer, to the Civic Theatre on May 29 & 30. We chatted to Jonathan about the show, why he thinks Australia Day has become such a divisive topic and what he did to celebrate Australia Day 2015.
What have you learnt from working with a company like Sydney Theatre Company, that you didn’t know before?
The challenges of working in a large organisation, people management and remembering that theatre only works if you have an audience – ultimately, that’s who you’re doing it for.
You’re renowned for your character acting. Do you have to lose a part of yourself when you take on a character the way you’ve done?
Not personally, but I know there are those who do. And as I do a lot of comedy, part of you has to remain very much in touch with what’s going on, you can’t surrender to the moment completely because you have to be listening for the moment the audience stops laughing. Or starts on a slow night.
What can you do with writing for stage that you can’t on the page?
Actors bring scripts to life in a way that can never be captured by the page alone. Dialogue, sub-text and physicality are only animated by performance. Plus you can’t beat laughter in a crowded room.
How were you able to bring something unique to your Australia Day ambassadorship?
You’re asked to write a speech for the citizenship ceremony and basically you can say whatever you like as long as you’re not party-political. So I suppose my take on the day was a chance to bring something personal, although I took one look at the audience in Singleton and decided to skip the bit about invasion day, probably not the time.
Why do you think Australia Day has become such a divisive topic?
I think the day has been hijacked by commercial interests and the nationalists – we don’t need flag tattoos and the First Fleet wasn’t sponsored by the fresh food people. In fact, they hardly had any food at all. And I think there is still some way to go in terms of acknowledging that the place was a going concern for the original inhabitants long before Europeans got here. But it can be a day to reflect and think about not only past successes but present and future challenges.
How did you come to work with Melbourne-based theatre company HIT Productions?
They’re one of the few companies doing national touring and I wanted to get the play out to audiences in regional areas because it’s about them and their communities. We’ve got a great cast and a long tour, let’s hope they all survive.
The earlier productions of Australia Day were directed by other people, why have you taken over this time?
I think it’s dangerous for an author to direct their own work for the first production, you’re too close to the material, but once Richard Cottrell had done such a superb job on the premiere season, I felt safer taking it on. And it’s been a great opportunity to re-visit the text and tighten up a few things.
Tell us more about Coriole…
Coriole is actually a winery in South Australia but the Coriole of the play is completely different. It’s a fictional place and in my mind it’s somewhere on the north coast of NSW, a small coastal town under the pressure of changing demographics as the sea-changers and retirees plough up the farms and put in sub-divisions and roundabouts. And the politics is changing too – as we saw in the last state election with two Greens getting seats in the lower house. But many of the local people are pretty much the same, as are their attitudes. Which I could hear as I sat in the opening night audience in Ballarat!
How did you celebrate Australia Day 2015?
I was actually driving back from Newcastle and we stopped in at a friend’s house on the lake near Erraring because he was having a barbecue. Not an Australian flag in sight.
