THEATRE: THE LONESOME WEST
“You could be in China and relate to it,” says Peter Carstairs of his production, The Lonesome West. The third in the Leeane trilogy by acclaimed Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, it stars Travis Cotton and Toby Schmitz as two bitterly feuding brothers who bury their father under decidedly shady circumstances. “It’s at the blackest end of the spectrum, but it also explores universal themes like forgiveness and being able to forgive before we can have proper loving relationships.” Having established his reputation as a film director with the 2007 September (featuring Tim Burton’s soon-to-be-Alice in Wonderland Mia Wasikowska), theatre was, “new territory in many ways … I tried not to treat the piece with too much of a cinematic eye, stripping it back to its bare essentials.” It seems fitting that Carstairs’ first foray onto the stage is using a writer who also ‘crossed over’ from theatre to the big screen with the script for In Bruges. Either way, the aim is to tell a story – one that could resonate in the crowded East.
Aug 22-Sept 13, Belvoir St Downstairs Theatre, 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills, $23-29, 9699 3444 or belvoir.com.au
