Et Tu Theatre Brings Dennis Kelly’s Orphans to Bellingen

Q1) What drew Et Tu Theatre to Dennis Kelly’s Orphans, and why does the play feel particularly relevant to audiences now?

Amy: We always seek out plays that tell stories in different ways, from perspectives we might not instinctively consider. With Orphans, Dennis Kelly invites us to think about how far we will go for the people we love, through the lives of a family in crisis, navigating the fallout of a violent act. It’s thrilling, shocking and so incredibly human.

Kelly’s brilliant writing captures the messy thoughts that often jumble together when we’re in crises. The truths that slip out when we’re under pressure. The worries that suddenly feel very tangible and real, sharp edges and all.

The story is set in the UK in the mid-2000s but the subjects it explores are so relevant to now. As humans, we’re still grappling with versions of the questions asked in this play.

Q2) The story explores foster care, generational damage, racism and the potential for violence within us all. How have you approached these confronting themes in rehearsal and performance?

Seton: The most important thing for us has been to provide a safe space to explore these themes, for both the creative team and our audience, and to tell an engaging story in a considerate and caring way.

When approaching this work as a creative, I always think of what one of my great acting teachers said, which was that as an actor, you have to understand that any character is capable of anything at any time. So it’s really important to us as a company that we give the creative team the space to explore these themes honestly and safely, regardless of experience, even for Amy and I who’ve been doing this work to a long time through to our fellow cast member local actor Peter Nelson, for who Orphans is his first professional show. And at the same time respecting people who have a real lived experience of this subject matter

It’s a difficult line to walk. As actors, our aim is not to judge our characters as we play them, because we largely don’t judge ourselves as we move through our lives, we just act and respond to the situations in which we find ourselves. It’s often only afterwards, when we have time to reflect, that those judgements come in.

So, in rehearsal, we’ve tried to approach these moments without pre-judging the characters or the situations they find themselves in. We need to allow the actors the freedom to explore how someone can arrive at these choices, without excusing or glorifying the behaviour itself. That allows us to tell the story truthfully and in the moment.

For us, the challenge has been finding that balance: creating enough safety to explore these confronting themes honestly, while still allowing the characters and the story to be messy, complicated and, at times, deeply uncomfortable.

Q3) The play begins with an apparently ordinary date night before taking a much darker turn. How have you built that escalating tension while preserving the moments of lightness that are characteristic of Et Tu productions?

Amy: I love this question because it gives me a chance to really celebrate all the incredible elements and people that have contributed to this production.

First of all, Dennis Kelly’s incredible script brings together darkness and lightness. The tension is always humming along, but we’ve also found moments were we’ll laugh because we can relate to the characters.

We also had a very talented creative team around us.

We worked with a talented sound designer and past Et Tu Theatre collaborator, Sean Bradney-George aka Wyldcard, who’s also my brother. Given when and where this play is set, Seton and I wanted to bring elements of UK grime music into it. Each act of this play has a different tone, so we worked with Sean to bring aspects of that into the sound design. His original music for this production brings so much atmosphere and the elements of grime add another level of tension to it – as well as a very special moment of brightness.

The set is another aspect to this. Seton and I wanted to create a space where shadows and screens visually showed the division between the outside world and Danny and Helen’s home. We collaborated with local carpenter Terry Wilkins to bring this vision to life. His experience, along with a passion for theatre and an understanding of what we do, has resulted in a set that contrasts warmth with the grittiness of a neighbourhood that’s not yet been gentrified.

We’ve also used lighting states to expand on the story. Working with our longtime collaborator Nicholas Hogan from Inspired Audio Visual, we’ve found moments of lightness and darkness, with a few special elements to bring this play to life in a creative way.

Q4) What can audiences expect from experiencing Orphans in the intimate studio setting at Bellingen Memorial Hall, and what do you hope stays with them after the performance?

Seton: Firstly, I think we just want the audience to feel like they have had a worthwhile time at the theatre. Theatre is an amazing medium for connecting a group of people in a shared space and providing them with thought-provoking moments that they can hopefully talk about, not just with their friends and family, but also with new people whose paths they may have only crossed that night at the theatre.

Secondly, the intimacy of the Bellingen Memorial Hall Studio means that there is really nowhere to hide for either the audience, the performers on stage, or anyone else in the creative team. Everyone gets the same sort of exposure to the play.  And  what a gift it is to share the same story with a small group of different people each night.

Thirdly, the size of the BMH Studio space means that we can really be creative in creating a grungy mid-2000s UK apartment in our beautiful little town. Our set and production, run expertly by our brilliant stage manager Macy Lane, is so close that the audience can really see each breath the actors take  as they inhabit the messy, chaotic lives of Helen, Danny and Liam. It gives the audience a sense of immersion that a bigger space might not allow for.

And I think that’s what audiences can really expect from this production: to be right there with these characters, in this messy little world, with very little distance between the audience and what is happening on stage.

Finally, we just want our audience to come away from the performance feeling like they’ve been told an interesting story, been shown aspects of other humans’ lives, and maybe thought differently about some stuff, no matter how briefly. Hopefully, they’ll have had some thought-provoking moments, something to talk about afterwards, and ultimately an experience that was well worth their while.

Photo: Jamie Barber