Having done the rounds on the big screen and Broadway, ‘Into The Woods’ now comes to Queensland Performing Arts Centre.
In between presenting for 'Play School', starring in acclaimed television series 'Offspring' and producing his own hilarious shows, comedian Eddie Perfect has found time to sign up for Harvest Rain’s production of the wildly successful ‘Into The Woods’. And, it seems, he can’t wait to get started.
“I've only had a couple of conversations with [Harvest Rain Director] Tim,” Eddie says, “but I think he wants to get right into into the woods. There are a lot of things going on, there’s the theatrical device of the narrator who's guiding us through, and after a while the characters begin to have a kind of relationship with the narrator. It goes from being a told story, to the characters revolting against the narrator and telling the story themselves.”
Harvest Rain as a theatrical company is often known for their avant-garde and boundary pushing productions, and it seems that ‘Into The Woods’ will be no exception. “It’s a strange piece, the first act is kind of completely self-contained. They go into the woods to get their wish, they get it and everything seems kind of resolved.
"It can be quite dangerous to get what you want – sometimes having the thing is not as good as you thought. So the second act is really quite dark and I think the challenge for us, and for Tim, is going to be finding a way to make that first act really fun and then being able to take it somewhere really dark and sophisticated in the second act. It’s a tricky breach.”
‘Into The Woods’ has already proven wildly successful both as a stage production and as a cinematic release, factors that Perfect acknowledges can be ever so slightly intimidating when starting a new show. However more accustomed he may be to performing in original or self-written pieces, he also insists that truly excellent pieces can never truly reach a finite peak of success.“That’s the brilliance of sophisticated writing – everyone can bring something to it. And we're not going to get to a point where we don't want to put on a production. Actors are always going to be able to find new ways of drawing new angles out of old characters. With some roles there’s a limited way in which that role works, but you just have to get in there and hope your version is OK.”
As well as being a notable performer, Eddie also scripts many of his shows, something which he immensely enjoys. Though he also enjoys being able to turn off the ‘writer’ side of his mind and wholly immerse himself in the performance. Try as he might though, it can get a little tricky to not think critically (albeit constructively) about the scripts he gets handed.
“I’ve done some really well-established shows and it’s not an issue there – you're not going to turn up to ‘South Pacific’ and think they should do another workshop on it, because it’s a successful show that works. But when you do a new work it is interesting because the process of creating something new is that you're constantly revising. It’s human nature to turn on the script when you can, because an actor wants to blame everyone else before they blame themselves. But that's the great and terrifying thing about established productions, there's nowhere to hide.”
While preparations for ‘Into The Woods’ might be a little way away, with the performances not scheduled until October, Eddie has plenty of things to keep him busy, including a new gig on classic ABC children’s show ‘Play School’.
“Being part of ‘Play School’ is such a lovely stamp of approval, it’s such an iconic show and the positive feedback I got was insane – people I literally haven’t seen since I was eleven and now have kids are getting excited about it.
“I’m in a kind of development period at the moment, these things tend to go in cycles you know. There’s the lonely depressing writing period where you kind of feel like you're paddling in the middle of the ocean, and that’s kind of where I am right now. I’m writing a play at the moment which is a follow up for the last play I did with Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company. And I’m writing a black comedy for television. Hopefully some of these will begin to see the light of day soon otherwise I might go a little bit loopy.
"You start to get paranoid you know – you could do 6 months of work and then have someone turn around and say ‘we’re not going to do this’. It’s like planning a party and buying all this fairy bread and booze and then no one turns up and you just sit around thinking 'what the fuck am I going to do with all this fairy bread?'”
‘Into The Woods’ plays Queensland Performing Arts Centre, 1-4 October.
– written by Eva Phillips
