Daniel Vigilante
Sandra 1
Michael ItaliaInterview: Fin Kennedy, UK playwright (LINK)
"How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found"
By Daniel Vigilante
If you’re jumping into this article thinking that it’s Radiohead related, don’t be discouraged when I tell you it’s not. While the name of one of Radiohead’s most beautiful and haunting tracks is not concretely linked to this new play of the same name, the sensibilities of those who esteem the song my very well find something to relate to. The playwright is a Briton, Fin Kennedy, and it deals with themes not dissimilar his countrymen’s lyrical motifs: “identity, particularly identity in the 21st century, and the sense of alienation from one another and from ourselves, which many people seem to experience as a by-product of modern life.” This has Kid A written all over it, though as I said, the only real connection they share is, ironically, a British identity.
Kennedy explains the basics of the plot: “The play follows an advertising executive who suffers a breakdown of sorts and tries to change his identity and become someone else in an effort to escape from himself. Needless to say, it doesn’t work, but the journey he goes on takes him to some very dark places of the human soul.” He goes on to say that “it’s a philosophical, existential play at heart”, which isn’t to say it’s at all dry or inaccessible. Rather it’s an everyman story about the search for “meaning in a world which fetishises the fake – which is why the theme of advertising is so important at the start of the play. Charlie, the lead character, is a Brand Manager – a job which was inconceivable 20 years ago. In the western world we no longer produce actual real goods any more—that’s subcontracted out to the developing world—and instead we produce and manage ‘ideas’ of things – brands. A whole industry has sprung up to manage something that doesn’t actually exist. This seemed to me to be such an absurd state of affairs that I wanted to see what happened if someone tried to apply it to their own life, and re-brand themselves.”
After exhausting himself of the playwriting scene a couple of years ago and being on the verge to give it all up and teach drama for a living (“almost no-one makes a living from theatre alone, everyone else has another string to their bow”), Kennedy got a call from the Arts Council saying the play had won the prestigious John Whiting Award for new theatre writing; a accolade not awarded to an unperformed play in 38 years. “That award frankly rescued my career – it came with a cash prize so I was able to go back to writing.”
And with the award came the chance to have it performed, and with that came the appraisal. It enjoyed a favourable critical reception from both the nose-twitching toffs at the Guardian as it did from the public, which Kennedy says is enthralling in equal measures.
“When I watch my own work I actually spend most of the time watching the audience – it’s such a strange alchemical relationship, and it’s different every night. It fascinates me. Audiences and critics were so invariably positive about How To Disappear that it made the long hard road I’d travelled to get it on totally worthwhile.”
So what can audiences expect at the performance? “A rollercoaster journey through the seedy underworld of London and Essex, but also to be challenged stylistically – quite early on reality splits into two and we follow two different paths of Charlie’s life. I had to play with form a bit to explore a theme like this, and to look at the thin line between life and death, between existing and not existing.”
Who ever said this was not linked with Radiohead?...
The Australian Premiere of How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found is presented by Hoy Polly Theatre and will be directed by Paul King.
23 May – 07 June at Mechanics Institute Performing Arts Centre, Brunswick
www.finkennedy.co.uk
By Daniel Vigilante
If you’re jumping into this article thinking that it’s Radiohead related, don’t be discouraged when I tell you it’s not. While the name of one of Radiohead’s most beautiful and haunting tracks is not concretely linked to this new play of the same name, the sensibilities of those who esteem the song my very well find something to relate to. The playwright is a Briton, Fin Kennedy, and it deals with themes not dissimilar his countrymen’s lyrical motifs: “identity, particularly identity in the 21st century, and the sense of alienation from one another and from ourselves, which many people seem to experience as a by-product of modern life.” This has Kid A written all over it, though as I said, the only real connection they share is, ironically, a British identity.
And with the award came the chance to have it performed, and with that came the appraisal. It enjoyed a favourable critical reception from both the nose-twitching toffs at the Guardian as it did from the public, which Kennedy says is enthralling in equal measures.
“When I watch my own work I actually spend most of the time watching the audience – it’s such a strange alchemical relationship, and it’s different every night. It fascinates me. Audiences and critics were so invariably positive about How To Disappear that it made the long hard road I’d travelled to get it on totally worthwhile.”
So what can audiences expect at the performance? “A rollercoaster journey through the seedy underworld of London and Essex, but also to be challenged stylistically – quite early on reality splits into two and we follow two different paths of Charlie’s life. I had to play with form a bit to explore a theme like this, and to look at the thin line between life and death, between existing and not existing.”
Who ever said this was not linked with Radiohead?...
The Australian Premiere of How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found is presented by Hoy Polly Theatre and will be directed by Paul King.
23 May – 07 June at Mechanics Institute Performing Arts Centre, Brunswick
www.finkennedy.co.uk
