Image by Daniel Boud
This is very much a chance for three former-young-theatrical-turks of the late 2000s/early 2010s to play together - all have previoulsy played Hamlet, Cowell in a Bell production in 2008, Leslie in an MTC production in 2011 and Schmitz in a La boite production in 2010 in Brisbane followed by a Belvoir production reviewed here in 2013 which Leslie took over when Schmitz left early to be in an international TV series about pirates, "Black Sails". Now the three team up in a play written by all three looking at three survivors of the role, how they've reacted to directorial concepts and the various challenges of the part, and how life after the role-of-all-roles goes. It's witty though very in-jokey, and clearly a vehicle for their individual talents. Pre-show, they each perform a poem about various aspects of themselves- Schmitz starts off talking about his other day job working the counter of one of my favourite second-hand-book-stores (it makes it somewhat weird that I may have purchased a cheap thriller or a a preloved play from him); Cowell looks at his connection to his stuff while he's travelled overseas has panned out; and Leslie looks at his career from the inevitable-young-Western-Australian-of-a-certain-age-Ship-To-Shore-performance (the very anglo Leslie played the very not anglo Guido Bellini) and having roles stolen by Heath Ledger, to his current life watching tv with his kid and wondering how he compares to the perfromers who his kid likes.
All three are very much playing to their strengths - Schmitz is sardonic, Cowell bullish and bold, Leslie tense and neurotic - and while the show does feel more like three talents gathring to entertain themselves and us rather than anything particularly deep and thoughtful about the artifice of acting. But as a summer fling for the performers, it's perfectly servicable.
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