Brisbane’s brand new theatre company, Big Scary Animal, is already turning heads ahead of its first production, 'Savage In Limbo', at Lucky Duck Café & Bar in Highgate Hill.
We talk to NIDA actors Julian Curtis ('Dance Academy') and Zoe Houghton ('Chasing Milat') about the show.
Why have you chosen a bar as the venue?
Julian Curtis: It can be hard to crack a new audience. The play is actually set in a bar —you can grab a drink and watch the action in the setting the writer intended. You’re part of the action.
Zoe Houghton: We wanted to bring this to life in downtown Brisbane and also attract people who wouldn’t necessarily be drawn to a traditional venue for a classic American text like this. We want people to have an intimate experience with the words, the story and these characters.
Why this play relevant in 2019?
Z: It’s spookily relevant for today, this digital age — when many of us feel trapped and lost and alone. So many people are searching for connection, for meaning and as my character says, ‘give me something else coz this is definitely not it’.
J: The plot centres around five New Yorkers stuck in a rut in their mid-thirties. Their hilarious insecurities come pouring out as they get progressively drunk in a dive bar. They’re instantly recognisable in 2019: The spunky firebrand, the baby-voiced alcoholic, the insecure stud, the gruff bartender. The themes are enduring.
What do you like about your character?
J: Tony’s such a clash of competing ideas and values – dripping with every toxic 'bro' stereotype. When we meet him he’s emotionally wrought after a coming-to-Jesus moment he attributes to backseat sex with a Russian. He’s at once selfish and selfless, kind and cruel.
Z: Savage is such a complex woman. At once volatile and vulnerable, wise and naive; a virgin who longs to loosen the chains of her impotence and sink her teeth into the world in all its pain and glory. She’s stuck, scratching like a wild animal for a chance at something more. Something else. She’s a smart-mouthed smart-arse with a heart of gold.
