It’s been a long three years since director, producer and writer Les Solomon first saddled up with the idea for his upcoming play, 'God’s Cowboy'.
“It started as a conversation in a car on the way to Parramatta Riverside Theatre in Sydney in early 2023, with a client of mine,” Solomon says. “We were talking about ideas just generally and I often get ideas for things that would make good movies and I think of a title and a plot line and he said, 'tell me one' and that was three years ago.”
The initial concept revolved around a twin brother and sister. The latter brings home her new boyfriend, who ends up falling in love with her twin brother.
“Instead of her being jealous about it, she celebrates it and encourages it,” Solomon explains. “The idea then grew considerably into a set of twins as before, but in this instance they work backstage in a show and they meet an actor who they both become rather intrigued with, and the boy ends up in a relationship with him and the girl becomes very close to them. It’s since grown through a multitude of readings and workshops and we did a fully staged pre-performance and it gave me the idea that we had something cooking.”
Solomon describes bringing the idea of 'God’s Cowboy' to life as a “collaborative experience”, which has evolved over time thanks to the contributions of the many people involved. “Young people have been very involved in the process and a lot of them that I have worked with have been very involved in the creation of this play. “I’m really proud that it’s a play full of young voices, and the young cast have even contributed to some of the lines included in the play,” Solomon says.
Part of the collaborative experience required finding the perfect cast to bring the young lovers, Max and Peter to life. “[Director Ella Morris and I] have really gathered together a great cast. It’s a difficult play to do with young people. The two central leads are meant to be young and the amount of intimacy and, particularly the scene at the end of act one, ends in a very powerful way. . . It’s a hard scene to do and required two brave actors who are not afraid to go that extra mile and it was really hard to find two actors to do that.”
Solomon is thrilled to have discovered Max Fernandez and Nathaniel Savy to portray the two lead roles of Daniel and Peter. “We have two people that get on very well and relate very well to each other and that’s important, because we want the audience to fall in love with their love and fall in love with this love story, which is a very important part about what the play is.”
When referring to what the play is, Solomon puts it simply: “It’s about art and the love of music and performance and how art can heal. . . It isn’t really much about God or cowboys, it's about relationships and sexual damage, and what happens when someone is sexually damaged at a vulnerable age in their life. It’s a story about being a martyr and not always going where your heart leads you, because sometimes your heart can lead you to somewhere very dangerous.”
“It covers a lot of those elements and it's also very fun, and funny, and theatrical.”
'God’s Cowboy' is playing Flight Path Theatre as part of the Sydney Gay And Lesbian Mardi Gras+ from 21 January-21 February.
