THIS YEAR’S ASHES
The plot of Griffin Theatre Company’s new play, This Year’s Ashes, sounds uncomfortably familiar.
It centres on the character of Ellen – played by Belinda Bromilow – and her life in Sydney: she’s allergic to the water (who isn’t?), hates her office job (who doesn’t?) and has a complicated love life (!).
“It’s a play not just for its time but for its place,” says actor Tony Llewellyn-Jones who is playing Ellen’s father.
Llewellyn-Jones said that the company is busily branding the play as a romantic comedy but it is more complex than that.
“In part you could say melancholy lingers but it’s pushed out the door by the sunlight,” he said. “It’s a play for spring, it really is.”
The way he describes it, the play is romantic but is also a tribute to our fair city.
“One of the things the play is about is how to enjoy living in Sydney, particularly if you’re lonely… Jane Bodie has written an ode to Sydney.”
The play is directed by the talented Shannon Murphy whose production of My Name is Rachel Corrie, also starring Bromilow, won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Independent Production in 2008.
Llewellyn-Jones said about Murphy: “She represents a generation and a gender and view of the world that’s worth being given the opportunity to shine a spotlight on Jane’s text, Jane’s story, Jane’s wish … it’s an optimistic play, it’s not a pessimistic play.”
“In a play like this, we have to be real, absolutely real. There’s no artifice in it whatsoever. But its flight of fancy comes from the simplest concept.”
The play premieres next week and also stars Nathan Lovejoy. Aptly named for a romantic comedy, Lovejoy most recently appeared in Bell Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing with Llewellyn-Jones. You might recognise Belinda Bromilow from her recent stint on television alongside Claudia Karvan in Spirited.
Oct 7-Nov 19, SBW Stables Theatre, 10 Nimrod St, Kings Cross, $15-47, 9361 3817, griffintheatre.com.au
