Dead Cats Don’t Bounce was the provocative title of a play that premiered at QPAC’s Cremorne Theatre in February 2009.
The play is written and produced by Queensland playwright and lawyer Simon Alroe. Simon has had one of his plays turned into a radio play by the ABC and his last play, The Slippery Slope, was nominated for a Perform Magazine Theatre Award for best script.
ourbrisbane.com caught up with this busy playwright and solicitor to find out about his new play and its intriguing title.
SA: Dead Cats developed out of my interest in the stories behind the major corporate collapses of the last 10 years – HIH, Enron, OneTel, ABC – to name just a few. I wanted to know more about how the people running those companies became so obsessed with their own egos and identities that they would do anything, even risk jail, to shore them up. The narrative line and characters grew out of those stories and a couple of others that I added into the mix.
OB: So why Dead Cats Don’t Bounce? What does it mean?
SA: The title of the play came from a conversation in a lift when a colleague told me he’d just bought some HIH shares at a ‘bargain basement’ price. His stockbroker had warned him ‘Dead cats don’t bounce, mate’ but he was convinced he was on to a sure thing. It’s a stock market expression for a company in a downward spiral which briefly rallies but then fatally collapses. It’s also a metaphor which supports the narrative line of the play. Is the main character able to turn his life around or has he left it too late?
OB: Tell us about your writing process. How long does it take you and how many drafts do you normally do?
SA: I don’t keep track of how many drafts I do – I work on my laptop and just re-write over the top of the previous drafts. I tend to write in blocks of four to six weeks but first there’s a fairly long gestation period (up to a year, sometimes longer) when I map out the basic structure and research the stories behind the play. When I’m satisfied I have all the key structural elements I write the first full draft. After that I do more research then come back again and re-write. At that stage I work on a scene by scene basis until each scene has its own structure. Then I keep polishing until I come up against a deadline – usually the date the actors need the rehearsal draft. And I like to bounce ideas off people along the way – with this play Rob Coleby [actor], Lewis Jones my director and my partner Rill have all been terrific sounding boards. Lewis in particular has been very involved in knocking the script into performance shape.
OB: You decided to produce Dead Cats Don’t Bounce yourself. What made you come to that decision?
SA: I learned a lot working with my mate Brett Heath and Trocadero Productions on the last play and I was thinking about approaching a theatre company again when a window suddenly opened up for a production at QPAC. I like to write topical plays (and with the world financial crisis Dead Cats became even more topical) so I grabbed the dates even though I knew we’d be facing a lot of tight deadlines. I already had the makings of a great production team (Lewis Jones, Rose Walker my publicist and Robert [Coleby] and Steve [Grives] in mind as actors) so I was confident we’d be able to pull it together in time – if anything that they’d relish the challenge – and they have. And when Chris [Betts] and Helen [Howard] came on board I knew we had something special on our hands…
OB: What’s it like being the producer as well as the writer?
SA: It means that you have a greater degree of control over the final product. I like to work collaboratively and I just find the process a lot easier if you’re wearing those two hats. But of course it also means that you have a greater stake in the outcome. Ultimately though it comes down to who you have in your corner and with this production I’ve been very lucky in that respect.
OB: Yes, you’ve assembled a fabulous cast and a great director – how did you find them?
SA: I had Steve and Rob in mind when I wrote the script. Rob did a terrific job in my last play. He played a barrister and a QC I know said he was more convincing in the role than most barristers he knew! I also met Steve around then and I just saw this terrific chemistry between them and wanted to put that on stage. Rose Walker, a long time friend, put me in touch with Lewis Jones when I was looking for a director and we just hit it off. Then we looked for some other great actors who would complement Steve and Rob. It was like being dealt four of a kind in a game of Texas Hold’em when we discovered that Chris and Helen were also available.
OB: Who is your favourite playwright?
SA: Shakespeare is absolutely peerless for his range, versatility and language. At the next level, for me you could throw a blanket over David Hare, Stoppard, Ayckbourn and Mamet for the same reasons. Williamson is the best Australian playwright by a long shot for producing a body of intelligent, quality work.
OB: How do you find combining law and playwriting?
SA: I’ve always admired John Mortimer and other lawyers who can combine the law with another passion. And there’s a lot of cross-over between the law and theatre – the ‘costumes’ worn by barristers and judges, the theatre of the court, conflict, debate and human stories – all play out in both the courts and the theatre. Being a lawyer teaches you to see and present both sides of an argument, how to research and to dig into someone’s character and story to get to the truth – all essential playwriting tools.
OB: What do you hope audiences will get out of seeing Dead Cats Don’t Bounce?
SA: Audiences have the chance to see four of Queensland’s best actors on stage in an intimate venue and I can tell you from the rehearsals already that their rapport and the atmosphere of the play will be something unique. Lewis Jones is a terrific director and the play is a timely look at some real issues that are affecting us all – how do we stay true to ourselves in a world that is busier and more pressured every day, especially in the heat of a global financial meltdown? Dead Cats is a comedy but it’s not laugh out loud. The humour is based on irony which I think Australians appreciate so much because they have a real grip on themselves and the world – something that the characters in Dead Cats have lost and all the directors of those ‘dead cat’ collapsed companies lacked. I really believe that we deserve to see our own stories up there on the stage and, while I think that audiences will have a great night out at the theatre, I hope they’ll see themselves reflected in the play and take away some real food for thought.
Dead Cats Don’t Bounce played from 17th to 28th February 2009 at the Cremorne Theatre, QPAC.
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