Graeme Watson is a very busy man. Not only is he the newly appointed General Manager of local independent radio station RTR FM, he’s also one half of theatrical production collective Idea Ex Machina.
It’s a production company he runs with his younger brother Grant, the two of them responsible for such local pieces of theatre as The Angriest Video Store Clerk in the World and the award-winning Serpentine. While Grant writes the work, Graeme is the producer, the one responsible for overall editing and putting on the act.
‘It’s really easy,’ Watson said of working with his sibling, ‘because I’ve been working with him 34 years now. We should have it right by now, surely; we started training with Lego and cars.’
At its heart their new play, Cry Havoc, resonates strongly with Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. So much so the play even takes its name from a Julius Caesar line, ‘Cry havoc, release the dogs of war’. From there, the play borrows the bare bones of the Julius Caesar plot and colours in the story via an American setting.
‘Like all politics, it’s complicated, it’s complex; there’s lost of twisting and backstabbing and subplots and things aren’t really what you think they are,’ explained Watson. ‘Lots of it is revealed as you go through. It’s interesting how politics is so surveyed.
‘It’s a bit like how there’s no gay people in sport; there’s hardly any gay people in politics because there’s costumes and masks that you have to put on to play that game. So when we’re getting into the storyline, it’s kind of pulling some of those away and seeing how what’s behind someone’s façade can be used against them.’
The script for Cry Havoc was written a year ago and contained within it was originally written a political uprising taking place in Iran… and event which has since happened. ‘It was interesting to see that happen because we were right on the money.
‘And now we have to re-write it because our fictional political world of the future has to be one step ahead, and a bit more of the “What if this happened?†or “Could this happen?†territory. So it was interesting to see how close we were with some of the things we put down, because then we had to take them out again.’
Cry Havoc is ambitious in scope and nature. With eight actors on stage, it spans two acts with an interval: not your usual fair for local or independent theatre. ‘It’s a real performance piece; it’s a real actors’ craft,’ concluded Watson.
‘Actors love this piece – and hate it for the same reason – because it’s all the really great monologues, and confronting in its real dramatic moments. And because The Blue Room’s such a small, intimate space, I just hope everybody comes to see it! It’s always a producer’s worry as you get closer to the opening day, thinking “What if nobody comes?â€.’
Being a piece of must-see theatre, undoubtedly people will come to see this play with all its drama, intrigue and scandal.
Cry Havoc opens at The Blue Room on Saturday October 22 and runs until November 7. Tickets are available now. www.blueroom.org.au
