We are presenting ‘Marley & Mars Bars’ at the Lake Macquarie One-act Play Festival this weekend and boy, are we excited. With Helen Kirkpatrick as Marley, I reckon we are going to knock ’em dead!
It is enormously satisfying for me as a playwright to write with a particular actor in mind. As words appear on the monitor, I hear the actor’s voice, I picture the body language, and Helen is such a great actor I know my words will come to life from the moment she steps on the stage.
Marley’s mother was born in the backblocks, and Marley is undoubtedly her mother’s child. She says her mum’s accent is so strong you
could bottle it and sell it to overseas tourists as a souvenier: Marley’s not far behind in that regard. And, just like the mother who battled out there in the backblocks, Marley is a survivor.
Creating characters is magical and along the way, some of them become favourites – not just for just the playwright, but for the audience as well. I reckon I share two favourites with the Wyz Wimmin & Friends’ audiences: Daphne (whose husband went back to England for one last trip home) and Alison (who shocked her family when she told them what she wanted for her eightieth birthday) and I reckon Marley is going to join them as an audience favourite.
Wish us luck this weekend.