BOXING DAY

Boxing Day means a variety of things: shopping, sport, the sadness of realising there’s another 364 days till Christmas. But for pint-sized sleuth Freya (Holly Austin), it’s a chance to box up familial strife and patch together her broken family. Playwright Phil Spencer takes a moment out of rehearsal to tell us more.

So, Boxing Day … The play is set in what turns out to be a dark and dramatic countdown to Christmas. The final scene of the play unfolds with burnt chicken, frayed tempers and a grizzly hangover on Boxing Day.

Can you paint a picture of the town they live in, Rainwood? Is it fictional or real? It’s a fictional town. Rainwood is a quiet, dreary little working class town on the west coast of Tasmania that becomes the playground for Freya, the 10-year-old heroine of the play, and her friend Poppy.

What are the challenges in hinging a play around a youthful protagonist? The inherent sense of play, rule setting, role-playing, make believe and games that a child brings, are a great framework around which to wrap the narrative of a play. However, the challenge for me as a playwright was not to condescend or over-simplify Freya. She’s a complicated, intelligent and brave protagonist who just happens to be 10 years old. And the best advice I received from dramaturg Polly Rowe (Sydney Theatre Company’s Literary Manager) was not to write Freya as a 10-year-old, but simply to write her as a real person.

And what roles do Dad and Nana play in the drama? Freya wants to glue her family back together, but there is a lot of bad blood between Nana and Dad. This fractured family unit looks like it will crumble under the weight of a stressful Christmas season.

Tell us a little about your theatre company, Tin Shed. Tin Shed Theatre Company is run by partners in crime (Director/Performer) Scarlet McGlynn & (Writer/Performer) Phil Spencer. Tin Shed devise new work, write plays, make performances, concoct happenings and dabble with theatrical bits and bobs. The projects we embark on are deeply personal and we collaborate with a number of artists and non-artists to create a diverse range of performance work. Boxing Day is our first fully professional production – pretty exciting! Check out our website too – www.tinshedtheatrecompany.com.au

Sep 14-Oct 1, Old Fitzroy Theatre, cnr Dowling & Cathedral Sts, Woolloomooloo, $21-33, rocksurfers.org