5 January, 2002
The humble ATM is a central character in a bold new Australian play, writes Clara Iaccarino.
Most people have a story about an automatic teller machine (ATM) - about the monster that ate their card on the eve of a public holiday or the beast that refused to hand over a fistful of dollars when it was most needed.
But spare a thought for the poor ATM in all this. The Roguestar team - writer Brendan Cowell and director Leland Kean - have done just that. Their play, ATM, forms one-half of a double-header called Two-Up!, a refreshing initiative generated by the Sydney Festival's new artistic director, Brett Sheehy. Roguestar joins Kicking and Screaming, another Sydney-based independent theatre troupe, in an effort to inject some rawness and adventure into a Festival sometimes criticised for its exclusivity.
"The work is very cutting edge and it does sort of sit on a level that is brand new and unapologetic," says Kean. "That's probably the biggest credit (to Brett getting behind these two companies) and also to the two companies - that they've been willing to sort of stand up and say, 'This is it, this is what we think and this is the way we see the world', because the companies are both young."
The hour-long ATM features more than 20 characters and uses the cash dispenser - which acquires a female voice - as a kind of narrator and observer of the human dramas played out in the vicinity of its keypad.
"Everybody has a story about an ATM. That's sort of the wonderful thing that's so universal about it," says Kean. "The play revolves around the relationships that exist within a city, as much as around an ATM."
Both Roguestar and Kicking and Screaming have been busy in recent years. Roguestar produced the highly acclaimed Men (in December 2000) and Happy New (in July last year) at the Old Fitzroy in Woolloomooloo. Last June, Kicking and Screaming staged Imago by Emma Vuletic, one of the writers contributing to its Sydney Festival project, 360 Positions in a One Night Stand, also directed by Chris Mead.
Kean points out that the two companies produced seven new Australian plays last year, and all of them were very successful.
"They had wonderful reviews and we had great audiences. People tend to worry and talk about theatre in crisis, but there's an incredible wealth out there and there's some really good work going on," Kean says.
"It's lovely to see somebody like the festival step in and go, 'Yes, this does need the recognition to go onto the main stage.'"
Renowned for penning dark, surreal comedies, Brendan Cowell jumped at the chance to produce ATM when Roguestar was approached to become part of Two-Up!
"I like marrying laughter, intrigue and tragedy very closely," he says. "It's an in-the-heart-of-Saturday-night kinda play. It's an absolute cacophony."
If Sheehy and the two companies have anything to do with it, Two-Up! will become a permanent fixture at the Festival. "It's absolutely awesome to be included in the festival," says Cowell. "It's not tokenistic. He [Sheehy] believes in us and wants Australian content. And he wants them to be young voices, too."
This article was found at http://www.old.smh.com.au/news/0201/05/entertainment/entertain10.html