THE BLUE ANGEL HOTEL
The Blue Angel Hotel isn’t your average small town accommodation. It’s a place where women stay while visiting their lovers in prison. In Katie Pollock’s new play she explores why some women are attracted to dangerous men, particularly those who seek out new relationships with men after they have committed crimes.
“I needed to feel some connection to the characters because that’s not my life and we can’t write these women off,” Pollock explains. “So I … thought in order to be that person you would have to believe that people are capable of fundamental change.”
After meeting with ex-inmates and psychologists, Pollock gained a greater insight into the appeal of the ultimate bad boys. “For many of these men if they have managed to get away with their criminal activities for some time they develop what psychologists refer to as a mask of normality,” she says. “Part of their skill-set around the crime is being able to convince people they are a normal person, so they are very good at the con.” Pollock adds that once inside the prisoners have very little access to drugs and no access to alcohol. “They are living a healthy lifestyle with nothing to do but work out all day so they are fit and quite hot.”
Pollock, who also wrote the critically acclaimed A Quiet Night in Rangoon, describes the script as sexy, mysterious and fascinating. “It’s not a moralistic play. There’s no sense that people should do this or do that. Love is a very ambiguous thing and I think the greatest mystery of all is why one person loves another person.”
Nov 13-24, The Old Fitzroy Theatre, 129 Dowling St, Woolloomooloo, $21-33, 9365 0147, rocksurfers.org
