WHILE directing his wife Talei Howell-Price in short work Text has been incredibly rewarding for playwright Damon Lockwood, he has also been told, in no uncertain terms, he is not allowed to direct her outside the rehearsal room.
“She has informed me that none of the other actors get direction in the car ride on the way home, so she’s quite adamant that she shouldn’t either,” Lockwood, of Mount Claremont, said.
Text is one of three short pieces written by Lockwood which are being presented at Fringe World under the title Love and Hate.
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READ NOW“I wrote these three pieces completely independently of each other over a series of years simply because I had to write them,” he said.
“It was only when I was writing the last one, as it turned out, called Let’s Launder Together! that I had the idea of combining the three to create a longer show.
“It was a quiet first thought really before it began to expand and then I became really excited thinking, ‘yes they really could all work together’.”
Lockwood said Love and Hate had a stylistic arc which moved from dramatic (Text) to naturalistic (Williamsburg) to comedic (Let’s Launder Together!).
“Text deals with a long term couple where deep love flips into deep jealousy, as is often the case, and the desperate ramifications that are born from such emotions,” he said.
“Williamsburg was written in Williamsburg when we were at the New York International Fringe Festival with another show of mine called I (honestly) Love You and deals with a New York lad and an Australian lass tangling with the concept of either taking the next relationship step or calling it all off.
“And Let’s Launder Together! deals with the supreme joy and messy fumblings of initial love sparking in the most banal of locations.”
Along with Howell-Price, the cast includes Benj D’Addario, Christopher Sansoni, Emily Brennan, Barnaby Pollock and Salacia Briggs.
“It’s a joy to be in the rehearsal room with them,” Lockwood said.
“It’s strange, though, to be transparent, it’s almost like the older I get the more invested I become in one of my productions and it plays on your mind quite often. I guess passion can be exhausting but as equally exhilarating.”
THE ESSENTIALS
What: Love and Hate
Where: Art Gallery of WA Theatrette
When: February 9 to 20
Tickets: www.fringeworld.com.au