‘The thing about the murder is, the girls are so convinced of their reasoning, they go and confess it but are not remorseful,’ says actor Sage Douglas.
Douglas is a cast member for Black Swan Theatre Company’s production of The Damned, a dark tale of drugs, alcohol and the alienation of young people in rural communities. The story follows two girls who walk into separate police stations and confess to a murder which will rock the foundations of their small town.
‘…it looks at that lack of emotional investment which has been brought about by the drugs and the apathetic nature the kids have towards what they’ve got – they always want what someone else has.’
Douglas plays Kylie, a motherless 16 year-old girl living in a rural town whose life spirals out of control after befriending Natasha, a girl who turns out to be ‘a real fire cracker’.
‘Like all teenage girls, they get very involved with each other and it becomes their entire world and that eventually leads them up to quite a violent path full of drugs and separatism to everyone else until eventually it results in the murder of another girl.’
‘It’s hinted in the play a slight lesbianism but I wouldn’t read it like that and we don’t play it that way. My character’s cry for intimacy from Natasha is really fuelled by Kylie’s lack of a mother figure in her life, so I’d say it’s a fierce friendship.’
The Damned shares similar points to the 2006 murder of a Collie teenager who was killed by two teenage girls in rural Western Australia. However, Douglas retains that the piece is entirely fictional. Award winning playwright Reg Cribb was prompted to write the script from a rise in juvenile violence in Western Australia, Australia and around the world.
In preparation for the play, Douglas and the two other leads looked at what fuelled the minds of a 16 year-old girl.
‘I take my character’s motivation as a need for love, a need for acceptance and a need for approval.’
The Damned runs from October 14-30 at the State Theatre Centre – visit BOCS ticketing for more information.
Benn Dorrington
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