SameSame.com.au ~ Inside Out Australia

I’ve known Sean Mulcahy since he was a wet behind the ears first year Performing Arts student at Monash University. He recently graduated with Honours and I popped in to see a rehearsal of his farewell student theatre production. I was confronted with a modern, sexy and very emotional experience.

R+J blends a modern setting with Shakespeare’s classic text to create a piece that depicts the twists and turns of teenage love. Shakespeare’s epic love story Romeo & Juliet catapaults from the streets of sixteenth century Verona into the bedrooms of modern society.

The families are at war – the conflict not with each other but within themselves. Any sign of rebellion by their offspring is a continued threat. In this world of intense passion and bitter judgment, two lovers traverse “the fearful passage of their death-marked love”.

The iconic story of fateful love, now with two young men as full of idealistic dreams as Shakespeare’s original couple but with an ending you may not expect.

Despite his busy schedule, Sean [pictured] took time out to chat to me about R + J.

Is there a particular reason why you decided to re-tell the story of Romeo And Juliet?

It’s an iconic – if not the iconic – love story of all time, and love isn’t limited to boundaries of race, religion or even sex. If a young girl and a young guy can fall in love, so can two young guys. Of course, what they have to deal with as a bi-product of their love is very different to what a heterosexual couple have to, and the play explores the prejudices of parents and friends and coming to terms with their love.

Your adaptation of the play sees the renowned ‘star-crossed lovers’ as a same-sex couple – what inspired you to do this?

All of the above, really. A desire to create a piece that represents homosexual love and explores the differences between that and heterosexual love. Having two men in the lead roles also offers a new insight into the play, and has led to it becoming a lot more fun and sexual… but maybe that’s just Daryl and Tom!

In what ways are R + J similar to Romeo and Juliet?

Because the dialogue is the same dialogue as spoken by Shakespeare’s original characters, Romeo and Julian essentially come from Romeo and Juliet. Romeo is the dreamer, ‘in love with love’. And Julian is the practical thinker, finding in love a way to escape from his overbearing parents and shotgun marriage to his suitor, Paris. But what the two actors, Tom Halls (Romeo) and Daryl Ricketts (Julian), bring to it is a fresh modern edge. They see these characters as not seventeenth century paramours, but two young guys with their myriad issues who meet and fall in love for a number of different reasons.

Many would argue that taking a much-loved play like Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and adding your own twist to it carries a lot of risk. What was your biggest challenge in its re-creation?

Oddly enough, the challenge was not so much in changing the genders of the characters. It actually fit in naturally. But one of the biggest challenges was how – in a generation of text messages and tweets – Romeo was not told by the friar (in our version, his older brother) Laurence that Julian was only drugged and not dead. I mean, surely someone could have at least sent him a facebook message? But we’ve managed to overcome that in a really interesting way. Let me just say, the kind and caring Friar Laurence of the original isn’t so kind and caring anymore.

Is there a specific political/social message that you’re trying to get across?

There is a political edge to the piece. It’s the only piece of theatre to my knowledge that puts a gay marriage on stage. But I have tried to avoid politicising their love, because it shouldn’t be politicised. If anything, the social message I’d like to leave the audience with is that their love is just as strong, equal and real as love between two people of different genders.

In your opinion, what is the biggest prejudice that gays and lesbians face today?

Definitely gay marriage. I think it’s one of the final hurdles in the quest to remove homophobia from our legal and social strata. Moreover than that, however, is dealing with the gross human rights abuses against gays and lesbians in countries such as Uganda, which only this month is debating a law banning sodomy. When you read of what gay and lesbian people experience in these countries, you realise just how far there is to go in addressing homophobic prejudice.

There’s been a constant debate in the LGBT community about the importance of marriage over civil unions – where do you stand in this issue?

Personally, I’ve struggled with the gay marriage debate. Part of me believes that the idea of gay marriage is wrong, that it is a form of hetero-normativity or gay people playing straight and aspiring to a gradually defunct social institution – which the high rate of divorce attests to. But I strongly believe that if a gay couple wish to get married, they should be able to. Regardless of what my personal view is on marriage, I do believe that the choice to marry should be open to anyone and everyone. As marriage is – and always has been – a social institution, not a religious one, gay people should be allowed to marry and not be offered an equal but different civil union. If specific religions do not want to marry gays, that is – however wrong it may be – their choice, but they should not hold hostage the social institution of marriage.

R+J plays at Gasworks Studio (Cnr Graham & Pickles Sts, Albert Park) 27, 28, 29 January at 7.15pm and 30 January at 4pm & 7.15pm as part of the Midsumma Festival. For bookings click here.