Take two very ordinary characters and place them in a very extraordinary situation on a stage and what will you get? An emotional thriller, that’s what. The Water Carriers , written by two time Patrick White award-winning Australian playwright, Ian Wilding and directed by the gifted and well-known Australian director, Anne Browning, the play is a highly dramatic and sometimes comical insight into the lives of two strangers who find themselves involved in a one-night stand that doesn’t go according to plan. Beat had the privilege of catching up with Anne Browning to find out what it was like directing this fantastic play.
“It’s just a fantastic piece of writing and I really wanted to relish in the opportunity to manifest that on stage,” says Anne about accepting the job as director.
The script posed a great challenge, one that Anne was excited to tackle. With only two characters on stage for a full hour and a half, there wasn’t much room for error. The play has a great story arc, starting off as one thing and dramatically turning into something different before the audiences’ eyes. When asked what the audience can expect from The Water Carriers, Anne replies, “They can expect to be surprised, that’s one thing that I’ll say. There is quite a strong twist in it, an unexpected reveal.”
Damien Richardson (City Homicide) and Sarah Sutherland (Angry Boys) star in this production as complex characters, Dave and Kate. Having met in Dave’s karaoke bar, he charms Kate into coming home with him only to discover she’s a lot more complicated than he’d expected. Kate is deep, troubled and carrying a lot of grief, which at first had Dave intrigued but as the night goes on, the reality of the situation becomes highly emotional and highly comical.
The characters are relatable with Ian writing the play in a very raw and very real way. Anne explains, “It’s a very profound experience and how people respond in crisis. The kind of sense of how noble people can be, while at the same time being extremely ordinary.”
Four weeks into rehearsal and the very intimate crew of the two actors, one director and one stage manager (Marg Horwell) are enjoying making discoveries in the theatre room about moments within the play. “When you have a text like this you make all these enormous discoveries about moments in the play: how chilling they can be, how funny they can be, the possibilities of it as a theatrical experience,” says Anne. Writing such an extensive and in-depth script such as this one, you’d expect Ian Wilding to be particularly precious with it, as most writers are when handing over their work to someone else to direct. Thankfully though, he was quite the opposite. Allowing Anne to take her own steps in forming this production while staying true to the script was very much appreciated. There is nothing more important than an accommodating relationship between both writer and director, making this play very well-formed.
The only lowlight in making this production came from having a very intricate script to work with. What was going to be a design challenge in the beginning with health and safety issues regarding using real water for the in-built swimming pool on the stage (which the script called for) had Anne flexing her creative muscles: “I would have had to have done it symbolically or through some kind of physical metaphor.” However the swimming pool was built and the audience will be treated to see Damien skilfully hold his breath for a serious amount of time. Theatre meets… David Blaine?
Although there are some very serious and real issues being dealt with in this play, it’s not done without the touch of humour. Because lets face it, when life hands you lemons, ask for salt and tequila! And that’s just how Dave handles his ill-attempted one-night-stand, along with some Barry White. It was important for Anne to create a production that was very true and very honest. She explains, “I just wanted to make a great production that is completely filled-out in every way; that we haven’t undercooked it, that we’ve done the absolute best that we can and that it’s a very tight production that really moves its audience through laughter and tears.”
The buzz around the MTC Headquarters was that Anne managed to do exactly just that and more.
Anne’s resume of plays that she has both directed and performed in (The Colours and The Pitch, more recently) is extensive to say the least. Many of those have been done at the MTC, which is a great privilege, she says. Among all of those productions, Anne says The Water Carriers is definitely up there in some of her favourite work. Working with a wonderful cast, an accommodating playwright and an imaginative stage manager has helped carve this script into a highly rhythmic piece full of meaningful and comedic moments.
The Water Carriers plays at the MTC for six weeks. Putting so much energy into a play every night must be gruelling but it’s true passion that drives everyone involved. As Anne put it, “You can act in things you don’t love, but you can’t direct things you don’t love. It’s too hard. It’s like going to bed with someone you don’t like, to put it bluntly”. She couldn’t be more right.
