I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change
Season: 12-29th January 2011
Presented by: Brisbane Arts Theatre
Directed by: Miranda Selwood
BTK had the opportunity to chat with Kieran Davey (aka, MAN 2) before his big opening night this Thursday, January 13th!
Fresh into 2011, Brisbane Arts Theatre is well & truly love struck. Opening their season with Broadway’s accredited phenomenon, ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change – officially the second longest running off-Broadway musical (meaning the piece is defined outside of the common definition of ‘Broadway’). A musical comedy, the piece is high-energy from beginning to end. Performed by four actors, the play examines love, through snippets of suburban life – with each actor taking on a very demanding ten roles, from the forty or so characters!
What’s the general breakdown of the play?
The show’s a musical. It’s an exploration of relationships from start to finish, from dating to marriage, to divorce and beyond. The cast is only four people, everyone plays a whole bunch of characters, and it’s a very high energy & fast paced production!
How’s all the preparation going for the opening night?
It’s going well. We’ve had a couple of dress rehearsals and we’ve had our tech-run, all the costumes are together - it’s just about getting it down to a very slick show. With all the character changes everything needs to be tech-perfect. It’s certainly the most demanding and fast paced show I’ve ever done!
What character will you be playing in the piece?
It’s tricky, because it’s a cast of four and there are forty characters in the show. My official title is ‘Man 2’, but I’m covering all sorts of characters. We all do, all four of us have to take on twelve and up characters sometime.
You’ve trained in music theatre before?
I have taken lessons before. It is certainly something that I enjoy very much. I would like to think I’m quite at home on the stage singing!
This must be a golden opportunity for your acting portfolio. Are you inviting the agents?
That remains to be seen, certainly I’m very proud of the show. I’ll be getting everyone I know to come down and check it out. But, we’ll see how it runs in the first week before we start inviting out the cavalry!
Forty characters, you must have a favourite?
There’s a Jewish father who is attempting to guilt trip his son into getting married. I team up with the son’s mother as well, and we effectively degrade him in front of his ex-girlfriend, smashing his presence all for the fun of a reaction! Though it’s tricky, no scene runs for more than five minutes and you change constantly between characters – so it’s hard to establish characters at all, they’re all very different!
Which character do you find the hardest to perform?
One of the characters I’m playing is a serial killer, which is very much a ‘full-on’ roll! You have to go psycho on-stage, then directly following the scene I play a clergyman! So, the energy in each piece is really different, you have to portion that out appropriately, which is undoubtedly the most difficult part of the show. Being able to adapt from character to character, and portion that out at the precise moment.
What techniques is the director, Miranda Selwood, using to achieve all the character changes & make everything flow?
She has really left a lot of the characterization up to us, which is a real gift. You don’t often get that chance to have that much control. Because it’s an American production we are doing American accents, so a lot of the changes are through accent & voice, adding a whole ballpark of challenges. Sometimes the change is obvious; the character presents its own physicality, its own voice, and sometimes you have to consciously make the effort to segregate characters. It has certainly been a challenge and one I believe we’ve risen to!
What sort of themes/issues is the play trying to comment on?
The play is effectively trying to be an honest exploration of human relationships. It certainly doesn’t want to take sides – there are both good and bad characters, funny and tragic characters, which a lot of people take for granted. It’s a comedy, but there are some very poignant moments!
What is the pieces final statement?
Ultimately, the show just wants to portray people honestly. Whether it’s through comedy, or through more poignant characters, it just wants to be honest. And I think it does that very successfully!
Do you believe musical theatre is the appropriate medium to express this?
Absolutely, music has always been a very expressive art form. And musical theatre is taking that one step further to clearly tell a story, approaching the narrative form through the power of music!
Check out the Brisbane Arts Theatre Website for any performance details!
Website: Brisbane Arts Theatre
Production Page: I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change
Interview by: Benjamin
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