From La Boite's special Indie event comes two interconnected works from Sven Swenson's 'Sundial Plays': 'Angel Gear' and 'Dangerfield Park'.
Following a sold out season of 'The Truth About Kookaburras', this new series challenging audiences to look at who are are as Queenslanders and dare us not to look away. With extreme brutality and tenderness, the characters are stripped bare as their worlds are torn apart.
“Both plays have taken me places as a writer, director and actor that range from sheer joy to rage, fear, heartbreak and hilarity … Each work reflects on where our leadership is taking us and a gamut of responses we might have to things that can seem beyond our control. Together, they look at humanity’s desire for empowerment, justice and redemption,” Sven says.
Co-directed by Sven and Brisbane artist Brian Lucas, both productions are joined by some of Brisbane's best established and brightest emerging artists. Brian Lucas shares the stories behind the stories.
Brian Lucas © Rebecca TaylorDescribe these productions with a sentence each?
'Angel Gear' is a wild ride through a very dark world – a world that sits so closely beside ours that you can smell its body odour.
'Dangerfield Park' is about community, family and the ongoing fight for a better and more just world.
Your fav line in each show and why?
It’s hard to choose, because each of these pieces are filled with both real zingers and lines that speak directly to our contemporary world.
In 'Angel Gear', this little gem spills from the charming lips of a young man named Spite: “I got a vagina. Well, I haven’t really got a vagina. Well, I have; just not between my legs. Yeah o’ course I haven’t got one between me legs. That’d be fuckin’ weird, eh. Got one on my chest. Wanna see?” It’s such a random line, and one that manages to encapsulate the sense of bizarre humour, blunt language, fascinating strangeness and brooding menace that are so central to the piece.
In 'Dangerfield Park' , the character of Otis has the line “We can only be a community if we hear each others stories, mate. No one would be anything without stories leading them to their place in the world.”I think that this sums up so much about the piece, with its emphasis on a sense of community and storytelling.
Fill in the blanks:
'Angel Gear' will... scare the pants off you... and leaves you... breathless... but won't... let you off the hook without a fight... and is surprisingly... human.
'Dangerfield Park' will... open your heart and your mind... and leaves you... with a more open heart and a reinvigorated sense of justice... but won't... let you forget that we are all in this together... and is surprisingly... sexy.
How are the plays interconnected?
Both of the pieces are set within the in the world of Sven Swenson’s 'Sundial Series', an incredibly detailed and intricately real version of our own world but with a heightened sense of interconnectivity and magic.
Are you supposed to watch one before the other?
The pieces can be seen in any order, and while there are connections within the mythology and reality of both, neither depends on the other for its full impact.
They're quite dark productions, is there a light at the end of the tunnel for the characters?
The beauty of Sven’s work is that it can take you to the darkest corners of character, behaviour and situation and still find incredible humour, positivity and hope within that bleakness.
Sven Swenson as 'Edge' and Kieran Law as 'Fox' © Rebecca TaylorIf there was a movie based on your life, who would play you and what characteristics would they have to channel?
I’d probably want to play myself, just to see if I could do a good job, and to learn a bit more about the “character”.
What do you want audiences to say as they leave?
I’d love it if they want to talk more about the pieces with each other, and if they find themselves connecting with each other through that discussion.
And what will you be saying to yourself on the opening nights?
“Gilda, please be with us”. People who are familiar with Sven’s work will understand this, and those who aren’t will better understand it after seeing the plays.
Anything else readers should know?
This is a chance for Queenslanders to see original local work which has real relevance to the here and now, both in a specifically “Queensland” way and in a more universal sense.
If you could invite three people, dead or alive, to dinner, who would they be? And would you have a formal sit down, a BBQ or a wild party?
Dorothy Parker, Oscar Wilde and John Waters at a formal sit down that would hopefully deteriorate into a wild semi-Pagan BBQ.
Playing at La Boite, 'Angel Gear' runs from 14Th October to 8th November and 'Dangerfield Park' from 21st October to 5th November.
