HOBART - Past the Shallows program

Past the Shallows

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Archipelago Productions A co-production with ATYP

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“Out past the shallows, past the sandy-bottomed bays, comes the dark water – black and cold and roaring.”

© 2022

Past the Shallows

Archipelago Productions would like to acknowledge that we are a company that works and creates on the traditional lands and waters of the Muwinina people, and we are grateful to be telling stories on First Nations country that has such a rich history of storytelling.

We pay our respects to Elders past and present.

Past the Shallows Written by Julian Larnach Based on the novel by Favel Parrett

Favel Parrett Author

Julian Larnach Writer

Ben Winspear

Director and Dramaturg A co-production with ATYP Previews 14—15 September Season 16—24 September The Peacock Theatre Salamanca Arts Centre, 77 Salamanca Place, Hobart TAS Duration 75 minutes (no interval) Age recommendation 13+ Performance content: Explicit language, themes of death and alcoholism, and family violence.

Production content: Dim lighting, projections, theatrical haze, loud sounds, and music.

Keerthi Subramanyam Set and Costume Designer

Glenn Richards Sound Designer

Jason James Lighting Designer

Nema Adel AV Designer

Taryn Brown

Production Manager

Hannah Crane Stage Manager With

Meg Clarke Photo Luke Stambouliah Design Justin Stambouliah Talent Riley Francis

Ryan Hodson Griffin McLaughlin

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Director’s note This production owes its entire existence to Favel, whose inspiration it was and who gifted us the rights to the adaptation in a gesture of absolute trust.

Favel writes with elegance, simplicity, and truth, and conjures uncompromisingly poetic landscapes, devoid of sentimentality.

The indifferent power and beauty of the ocean is as strong a character in her novel as her humans, who themselves inspire us with their resilience, endurance, and suffering.

Working with Julian on this process has taught me an enormous amount. Not just about ways of approaching adaptation, but also how theatre can respond to literature to create something new, neither a completely faithful representation of the book (an impossibility) nor a conventional play.

It’s a little like making a child, one that retains its parent's DNA, but also comes into the world with its own will and ideas about who it wants to be. Our first task was to listen closely to the words and images in the novel from which we began to select knowing that we would need to be ruthless with who and what we left behind.

In adapting, you have to come to terms with willingly doing damage to a beautiful thing. Knowing that from the wreckage a reconstruction of sorts will soon begin. From this initial stripping down we used, wherever possible, Favel’s words to rebuild the work for the stage. With a reduced cast of characters, trying to tell the complete story with only a fraction of the material while retaining as much of the style and emotion of the original as possible.

Sometimes co-productions happen for the best of reasons; a shared love of the text and a desire to see it reach an audience.

ATYP has been the most enthusiastic of supporters; creative and caring, taking the majority of the difficult and thankless tasks, to allow me the freedom to concentrate on building the work. This involvement has also allowed us to bring artists from NSW to lutruwita/Tasmania and has given artists from our island the chance to take their work to Sydney. For some, it will be their first time working interstate. Thanks are also due to Salamanca Arts Centre for its early support, giving us space to write and, finally, a home for the work.

The cast has been inspiring and trusting, bursting with love for the characters and willing to explore completely new ways of telling stories on stage. They have not been given roles, which takes courage to accept. But between us, we have discovered three personal logics to drive three shared, but unique, visions of the story. They have poured so much of themselves into the production that it is impossible to imagine it having been made by anyone else. It is built from their intelligence and joy.

Lastly, I would like to thank Marta, who has encouraged, inspired, and occasionally pushed me along on this journey. We hope to have done Favel proud.

Ben Winspear

© 2022

Past the Shallows

Writer’s note I don’t believe in magic. Except when it comes to how plays are born.

A few years ago a friend suggested I read Past The Shallows, with an eye to adapting it for the stage. I grew up on a remote cattle farm, and being one of four brothers I have always wanted to see more regional stories on the stage, so it seemed like a natural fit. I read the book over a few sittings and when I finished, I threw it across the room. A week after putting it down I realised I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it and the reason I hated it was because it had hurt me. I knew two things right then; 1. the adaptation would only work if I managed to recreate that sensation of wounding, and 2. I had to work with director Ben Winspear on it. The day before I rang Ben with my plan, the writer of it – Favel Parrett – had contacted him and asked whether he thought there was a play version in it. The aligning of these circumstances has given the work its beating heart and its lodestar ever since.

Over the following months, Ben and I tossed excited emails back and forth. We knew we loved the book but wanted to take it a step further: rather than attempting a carbon copy, we wanted to create something that would stand next to the book and act as an illuminating companion, embracing its new form wholeheartedly. Later, Ben, musician Glenn Richards and I travelled to a school camp on the rugged south coast of Tasmania to begin work on the piece. Over the course of the development, we decided that although the book thrived on multiple perspectives, the play needed the singular drive of a protagonist; and so we chose the book’s most active character, the middle brother Miles, and set out to make this his story. We followed Miles’ journey, creating a spine out of every decision he makes in the book and then extracting the accompanying dialogue. Having this skeleton, we then attached context and colour from the book, filling in the gaps and leaps of logic with newly written material, stage images and space for actors.

Favel’s words paint a powerful family portrait about the love of brothers and the vulnerability of youth. Told from the perspective of a family of brothers, the story brings brilliant clarity to these young characters as they strive for identity and survival at the freezing end of the known world. It examines what it is to grow up as a young man in the country, the moments of tenderness that define you and the forces that want to crush that out of you. We wanted to create a play about opening yourself up to vulnerability and love in a world which is telling you to keep your head down and your dreams small. I no longer hate this book, I love it deeply and earnestly and I’ll be forever grateful to Ben for going on this journey to take Miles’ world and put it in the same room as an audience. I hope you enjoy the play and please don’t throw the script across the room once you finish reading it.

Julian Larnach

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Creative Team

Favel Parrett Author

Favel Parrett is a writer based in Victoria, Australia.

As Author Past the Shallows; When the Night Comes; There Was Still Love; Wandi.

Awards Dobbie Literary Award for Past the Shallows; 2021 ABIA Newcomer of the Year Award; 2020 Indie Book of the Year Award for There Was Still Love.

Nominations Miles Franklin Award shortlist for Past the Shallows.

Julian Larnach (He/him) Writer

Julian is a Sydney-based playwright and screenwriter.

As Screenwriter for Safety Net (Short Film); for Archipelago Productions: Past the Shallows (Feature Film).

As Playwright for ATYP: Something I Prepared Earlier in The Voices Project; for Outback Theatre for Young People and ATYP: Beneath an Oxbow Lake; for Canberra Youth Theatre: How to Vote!; for National Theatre of Parramatta: Flight Paths; for Darlinghurst Theatre Company: In Real Life; for Outback Theatre for Young People: Folk Song.

As Resident Playwright for ATYP; Sydney Theatre Company Emerging Writers’ Group.

As Literary Associate for Griffin Theatre Company.

As Affiliate Writer for Griffin Theatre Company.

© 2022

Qualifications University of Sydney: Bachelor of Arts (Government and International Relations); National Institute of Dramatic Art: Graduate Diploma of Dramatic Art (Playwriting).

Nominations Griffin Award for Playwriting; finalist for The Lysicrates Prize 2019; finalist for the 2022 Screen Producers Australia Awards: Best Short Film Production for Safety Net; finalist for the New Zealand International Film Festival: Best Short Film for Safety Net. Commissions Canberra Youth Theatre for How To Vote!; Riverina Playwright’s Commission for Beneath an Oxbow Lake; Edward Albee Scholarship; PWA Re-Gen Seed Commission.

Julian has completed creative developments for new works with Sydney Dance Company, Playwriting Australia and Griffin Theatre Company, as well as dramaturgical secondments with Belvoir St Theatre and Melbourne Theatre Company. He has been generously supported by the Australia Council of the Arts, having undertaken a JUMP Mentorship and received an ArtStart grant.

Ben Winspear

Director and Dramaturg Ben is a regular guest director at UNSW and UTAS, was a former Resident Director for Sydney Theatre Company, and was Associate Artist at Griffin Theatre Company where he was responsible for running artist development programs.

As Director for Sydney Theatre Company: Morph, These People, This Little Piggy, Metamorphosis, Thyestes, Macbeth, King Lear, The Tempest; for Tasmanian Theatre Company: Playground Injuries; for Blue Cow Theatre: 12 Times He Spoke; for Griffin Theatre Company: Feather in the Web; for Archipelago Productions: Venus and Adonis, The Masque of the Red Death, The Bleeding Tree, The Maze, Winterreise.

As Co-Director for Sydney Theatre Company: Victory.

As Associate Director for Griffin Theatre Company: Gloria.

Past the Shallows

Keerthi Subramanyam

(She/her) Set and Costume Designer Keerthi is a Sydney-based set and costume designer for live performance and film and is a member of the Australian Production Design Guild.

As Set and Costume Designer for Darlinghurst Theatre Company: Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner; for Red Line Productions: Chewing Gum Dreams; for Riverside Theatre: Chop Chef; for Belvoir St Theatre: At What Cost?.

As Art Director for SBS: Appetite.

As Associate Designer for Sydney Theatre Company: Grand Horizons; for Belvoir St Theatre: Wayside Bride, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, The Boomkak Panto, Cursed!; for Hayes Theatre Co: Young Frankenstein.

As Design Assistant for ABC: Operation Buffalo.

Qualifications National Institute of Dramatic Art: Bachelor of Fine Art (Design for Performance).

Keerthi is one of Belvoir’s Artistic Associates for 2022.

She is currently working across theatre and art installation.

Glenn Richards Sound Designer

Glenn Richards has toured the world and continues to record with his band Augie March and for his own solo material.

As Songwriter, Singer and Multi-Instrumentalist for Augie March: Sunset Studies, Strange Bird, Moo, You Bloody Choir, Watch Me Disappear, Havens Dumb, Bootikins, On the Quiet: Live, Bloodsport & Porn; solo albums: FIBATTY, Glimjack.

As Composer for Archipelago Productions: The Maids; for Archipelago Productions, Blue Cow Theatre and The Theatre Royal: The Bleeding Tree; for ABC: Fancy Boys; Lou; Scare Campaign; 100 Bloody Acres.

Awards Australasian Performing Right Association: Song of the Year for One Crowded Hour, Breakthrough Songwriter Award; Tasmanian Theatre Award for The Bleeding Tree score; Australian Music Prize for Moo, You Bloody Choir; The Age Song of the Year for One Crowded Hour; Triple J Hottest 100 Number 1 Song for One Crowded Hour.

Jason James (He/him) Lighting Designer

Jason works with electricity to make art and has presented in festivals and galleries around Tasmania.

His main practice is to design lights and/or projections for performing and visual arts.

He focuses on new Australian works and projects with social benefit.

As Designer for Archipelago Productions: The Maids, Bleeding Tree, Winterreise; for Sonia Heap: On Memory; for Dark MOFO: Dark Path; for Invisible Practice: F*ck; for Mature Artist Dance Ensemble: Seven Deadly Sins, Belvedere Ballroom, Heirloom; for Second Echo Ensemble: Let Me Dry Your Eyes.

Awards Tasmanian Theatre Awards: Lighting Design.

Glenn works out of his studio, Dark Satanic Mill Studios, in Hobart, Tasmania.

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Creative Team cont.

Nema Adel

Taryn Brown

Hannah Crane

Nema Adel is a Sydney-based projectionist and digital artist.

Inspired by the immersive power of projection mapping, Nema’s work is rooted in multidisciplinary collaborations across live concerts, public art installations, theatre shows, and more.

Taryn has been working in Technical Production for over a decade, with freelance experience as a Technician, Production Manager and Lighting Designer, while also branching out into Arts Administration more recently.

Hannah Crane is a stage manager with a range of experience across the indie and mainstage sectors.

AV Designer

As Projectionist for Milan Ring: Pick Me Up; for Keiynan Lonsdale: Billboard Pride 2020; for Dacre Montgomery: GHOST; for CXLOE: Swing; for Micah Jey: Rewilding; for Lachlan Dale: Death Envelops All; for Blake Strange: Shadow; for Clove: Tend.

(She/her) Production Manager

As Associate Production Manager for ATYP: M.Rock.

As Head of Lighting for Merrigong Theatre Company.

As Lighting Designer for MERRIGONGX: Route Dash Niner Part 2, Party Girl, The Surfer and the Mermaid.

As Program Coordinator for Merrigong Theatre Company.

© 2022

(She/her) Stage Manager

As Stage Manager for Griffin Theatre Company: Orange Thrower, Wherever She Wanders; for National Theatre of Parramatta: Zombie Thoughts, The Sorry Mum Project, Lady Tabouli; for Apocalypse Theatre Company: Angels in America I & II, Omar and Dawn, All My Sleep and Waking.

Qualifications University of Sydney: Bachelor of Arts.

Past the Shallows

Cast

Meg Clarke Meg Clarke was born in London before she attended Newtown High School of the Performing Arts.

Archipelago Productions debut.

Other Theatre for New Ghosts Theatre Company: Effe in Iphigenia in Splott, Jenny in Yen; for New Theatre: Judith/Sister Rosa in The Chapel Perilous; for Sport for Jove: Smeraldina in Servant of Two Masters, Juliet in Measure for Measure; for Lambert House: Meg in Away; for The Old 505 Theatre: Anette in The Divorce Party; for White Box Productions: Naz in Mercury Fur; for Ignite Collective: Lizzie in Shandy’s Corner; for Imprint Theatricals: Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche.

Screen for Seven Network: Home and Away; for Amazon: Five Blind Dates; for Sterling Cinema: Origin; for Voices of Women: Entanglement; for The Louise Frequency: All We Have Is Now; for Crispy Productions: Somni; Moth; Witkacy and Malinowski.

Ryan Hodson

Griffin McLaughlin

Ryan was born in South Africa and attended high school on the Gold Coast.

He studied at QUT in Brisbane before moving to Sydney in 2018.

Griffin is an emerging actor based in nipaluna/Hobart.

Qualifications Queensland University of Technology: Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting).

Archipelago Productions debut.

In 2020 Meg co-founded a Film Production Company; MTM productions, and is about to release her first film Pearly Gates.

(He/him)

ATYP Intersection 2019: Arrival.

(He/him)

Archipelago Productions debut.

Other Theatre for The Old Nick Company: Heathers; for Bad Company Theatre: Medusa Waking.

Awards 2021 John Bell Scholarship.

Other Theatre for Shake and Stir: Ferdinand in The Tempest; for QUT: Little Revolutions, Children of the Sun, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Anna Karenina, Detroit, Eurydice; for La Boite Theatre Company: Jared in Blackrock; for New Ghosts Theatre Company: Yen; for bAKEHOUSE: Coram Boy; for Viral Ventures: Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby; for Bell Shakespeare: The Players.

Qualifications Queensland University of Technology: Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting).

Ryan is a proud member of MEAA.

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The Archipelago Productions Team Marta Dusseldorp Ben Winspear Jen Murnaghan

Partner

Production Support

Past the Shallows is supported by Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative.

Thanks and Acknowledgements

Willoh Weiland James Brennan Paperjam Partners Cover used with permission from Past the Shallows

by Favel Parrett, Hachette Australia, 2011. #ArchipelagoProductions #ATYP_Theatre #PastTheShallows @archipelagoproductionstasmania @atyp_theatre

© 2022

Past the Shallows

“Keep your eyes on the water.”

—Miles

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