As 'Star Wars' actress Carrie Fisher infamously said, “take your broken heart, make it into art”, and that’s exactly what First Nations Playwright and Director Aidan Rowlingson has done with his highly anticipated project, 'Capricorn', which opens at Brisbane's La Boite Theatre this month.
The upcoming play follows a couple’s tumultuous break-up as they keep finding themselves falling back into each other’s orbit for various reasons; and eventually have to accept whether it is written in the stars and fate is calling them back together, or whether it’s time to call it quits. The moving play, which Rowlingson describes as a dramedy, is based on Rowlingson’s own experiences.
“Both characters [Sam and Ally] are from my perspective, and it’s a bunch of different experiences of mine that are theatricalised and blown up to the point of not being me anymore,” Rowlingson explains.
“They’re both two different sides of the same coin really. Ally is more like this staunch, knows what she wants, but not necessarily how to get it kind of person, and Sam is on the other end of that spectrum, where he is more fluid and easier going and kind of doesn’t want things to change at the same time. They have this nice juxtaposition.”
While for some people writing about past experiences can be considered therapeutic, Rowlingson begs to differ. “It wasn’t therapeutic,” he insists while laughing on the phone.
“I always give writers advice on where to start things and for me it starts with the way I wish the conversation had gone, or when you’re in the shower or laying up at night going 'oh I wish I said this' or 'that would have been so good'. I don’t know if it was therapeutic, but I definitely got a lot out of it and hope other people do too.”
As an actor himself, Rowlingson decided to step aside from the project and focus solely on writing and directing, but has enjoyed seeing the likes of Sean Dow and Jazleen Latrise – who play the lead characters – put their spin on this personal story.
“It’s interesting every time we’ve done a reading or got actors in to do it, they’ve really brought themselves into it and with an acting background myself, I wanted to write a play that actors could really sink their teeth into themselves.
“So, it’s been really fruitful to see that and as the writing process has gone along, sort of switching things and moulding things to work with the actors’ own interpretation has been really interesting.”
Rowlingson hopes 'Capricorn' will move audiences and will resonate with anybody that has been stuck in a similar relationship. “I just want people to walk away feeling a little bit seen,” he says. “People go through these kinds of experiences and feel so self-concerning and self-involved, but it’s actually a really natural and collective experience that a lot of people have. I’d like people to walk away just seeing a little bit of themselves in any of the characters.”
“You can have your whole life wrapped up in someone else, who you deeply care for, and it’s a bit difficult to separate that and ['Capricorn'] acknowledges the love that the characters still have for each other, even if they know they can’t really be together.”
'Capricorn' plays La Boite Theatre from 24 July-12 August.
