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ARTLOOK #15 | September 2005
Reviewed by:
BY SHANNA PROVOST
Photo Photography by Ildiko Kiraly
PROFILE: ADAM HADLEY, PLAYWRIGHT
LOVE IS the central theme of Six Pack-six new short plays being produced at the Street Theatre this month, by a handful of writers with varying degrees of acclaim. One has to wonder what the youngest playwright of the group, 22-year old Adam Hadley, might have to say about love.
'That dames ain't nothing but trouble!' says Hadley. 'In [my play], 'scuse me while I kiss the sky, the love theme revolves around two people who are the personification of what the other one hates and ultimately fears. I like to think of it as a 'road movie' play. The characters constantly ask themselves, 'What the fuck are we doing?' because none of it makes any sense. I guess this is also what I know about love. It doesn't make any sense, it makes people do bizarre things, and it's really, really awesome.'
The brainchild of The Street Theatre's artistic director Herman Pretorious, Six Pack brings together a broad pool of talent including Christos Tsiolkas, Timothy Daly, Rosemary Fitzgerald, Catherine Langman, Felicity Packard, Francesca Rendle-Short, PJ Williams, Emma Strand, Tom Watson, Patrick Wenholz, Andrea Close, Barb Barnett, Matt Stewart, Lara Lightfoot, Ryan Jones-and Adam Hadley, to co-create the deft exposition of these six new works.
The air is rarefied. And the irony hasn't been lost on Hadley, that his peers in this production have, in recent years, been his teachers and mentors. Hadley started writing in year nine at high school, and his first script, Better the Devil You Know, was chosen as part of Canberra Youth Theatre's Oysters Project. His credits since include monologues for the Street's Bunch of Fives and the short plays Platform 7, Flush and Rinsing the Princess.
Hadley studied creative writing at the University of Canberra (UC) and had short stories published in its annual publication First. 'I have a lot to thank the righteous babes of UC's creative writing school for. But mainly I have to thank them for the concept of 'writing what you don't know about what you know', which is really the lynchpin of my entire writing style. I am mainly an absurdist, specialising in psychotic rants,' says Hadley.
This month Hadley's duologue Flush will also be performed in One Night Only at the C- Block Theatre, thanks to backing from the ANU Theatre Society (NUTS). Hadley's mentor Catherine Langman will direct Six Pack: 'I love working with Catherine because she is constantly kicking my arse,' says Hadley. 'There is no one I trust with my work more than her, because she has never been afraid to tell me she thinks something I've written is shitty.'
Hadley wasn't happy with the development of 'Scuse Me', until dramaturg Peter Matheson got his hands on it: 'Peter is an absolute pistol, he has an amazing knack for bringing my characters to life as I see them in my head, which is frequently unsettling-but great.'
Hadley is delighted that actor Barb Barnett will play his female character, Lute. 'I think she's going to tear Lute right off the page and hit Canberra in the head with her,' he says. 'Six Pack is going to be an extremely exciting show because it features new work. It's going to kick it to the rad house.'
SHANNA PROVOST is a freelance feature writer for national magazines and specialises in the performing arts.
SIX PACK WILL PLAY AT THE STREET THEATRE FROM 22 SEPTEMBER–8 OCTOBER
