Homo Hijinks As We All Head To Hell!
In a brand-new Australian play, writer/director Alex Kendall Robson has drawn on an ancient Greek text about a journey to hell to help save the world. And, yes, if you think the world is going to hell and needs saving, The Frogs: In Hell They Sing Show Tunes will tickle your funny bone. It’s camp, it’s sexy, it’s a bit odd, and lots of fun. Alex spoke to DNA about his inspiration, the hot cast, and the, yes, those singing amphibians.
DNA: The play has a lot of strong gay and lesbian content. Was that intentional or did that appear in the writing?
Alex Kendall Robson I definitely leant into the queerness in the text, but it’s all there in the source material. The ancient Greeks, and their gods, had a far more fluid attitude towards sexuality than some people might think. Dionysus, god of theatre, wine and orgies, is your classic chaotic bisexual, but the award for the gayest male god goes to Heracles/Hercules, whose male lovers were, to quote the ancient writer Plutarch, “beyond counting”. Both gods appear in this play.
That’s just the male gods, mind you. There are plenty of virgin goddesses who scorn the company of men, and there’s the intersex love child of Aphrodite and Hermes called Hermaphrodite.
I also inserted into the story the real-life lesbian poet, Sappho, mostly because I was sick of men talking.
It’s also a play about frogs with multiple song-and-dance numbers. It was always going to be camp!
The cast is very good-looking, very funny, and talented. It feels like they all understood the brief and stepped up. Are you happy with their work?
I was very lucky with the casting. I had a clear vision for the story I wanted to tell, and how I was going to tell it, and I was fortunate enough to find eleven people brave and talented enough to come on this journey to hell with me. And yes, they aren’t hard on the eyes. Actually, that was somewhat of a drawback. No one is supposed to treat Dionysus like a god or take his disguise as Heracles seriously: and yet the lovely Pat Mandziy, who plays him, is a smoking hottie. It’s a disaster!
Is it still a work in progress? To be honest, I wanted a second act!
To describe the play as a work in progress is an understatement. The play features several musical numbers, but we’re constantly losing the rights to them, forcing me to rewrite the show. The final number on opening night – we rehearsed that for the first time five seconds before the doors opened to let the audience in! It’s madness.
A few people have asked for a second act, but I think there’s a lot to be said for a short play. You’re in, you’re out, with plenty of time to grab a few drinks and pastizzi before heading home.
Also, this is an adaptation, and there’s no more story to tell. The original is much longer because the contest scene between Aeschylus and Euripides, frankly, drags on, so I cut it to within an inch of its life.
And it ends in a very gay way!
Yes, it does. The play says everything I wanted to say, and most of what Aristophanes said. I think that’s enough.
It’s so great that new, original Australian work is being produced. How hard is that to make a reality?
New Australian work is difficult to produce in a multitude of ways. Unlike in the UK or US, there generally aren’t the resources for long (and paid) developments of new works. If a new play is staged – and that’s a big if – it’ll have a season, maybe get published, then that’s often it: no return seasons or lengthy and profitable tours. There isn’t the market in Australia for new works, as the population is too small. You could count on one hand the number of full-time playwrights in this country.
But that’s what Aristophanes wrote The Frogs about: the theatre scene in ancient Athens had gone downhill, so he had to go to hell to bring back a dead playwright, and the industry, back to life. With a chorus of hot guys dressed as frogs!
The Frogs: In Hell They Sing Show Tunes is playing at the New Theatre in Newtown, Sydney until Sept 6. Tickets here.
