Ride and Fourplay double bill in Sydney

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If you are in Sydney and looking for a piece of gritty and heartfelt theatre, look no further than Jane Bodie‘s double bill of Ride and Fourplay presented by Darlinghurst Theatre Company showing at Eternity Playhouse from 4th September – 4th October 2015.

In Ride, two strangers wake up in bed together, naked and hung over, with no idea how they got there. Through hazily reconstructed memories, they begin to make sense of what may, or may not, have happened between them.

Fourplay is a serendipitous story about four city dwellers finding intimacy, friendship and love in unlikely places. Richly human and cleverly wrought,  Fourplay is humorous and authentic.

Constellations director Anthony Skuse is thrilled to return to Eternity Playhouse to direct two of Bodie’s works. “Jane has a wonderful ear for language, rhythm and cadence,” said Skuse. “Fourplay and Ride were written independently of each other, but they complement each other beautifully. Both plays are concerned with how we negotiate our relationships and how we use language to conceal desires or needs as much as reveal them.”
Ride features Emma Palmer (Constellations, War Horse) and Tom O’Sullivan (Wonderland, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
Fourplay features Gabrielle Scawthorn (The Young Tycoons, Stop Kiss) and Aaron Glenane (Orphans, Deadline Gallipoli)
TAT Theatre asked playwright Jane Bodie a few questions regarding the show, and she was kind enough to talk to us.
TAT:  How did you develop the show and what was your inspiration?
Jane Bodie: I wrote both these plays over ten years ago, and though they work well together as a pair, and share common themes, they were written at different times. I wrote Ride as I wanted to explore an extreme one night stand, where neither of the two people in the morning remembered each other, and so were forced to examine each of their memories from the night before, to make sense of what brought them together and why – it’s an exploration of memory and intimacy pushed to the extreme. Fourplay is about love failing and new love taking its place – and a new kind of love being found in the oddest of places. I was a hopeful romantic back then!
TAT: Do any of the characters resonate with you personally?
JB: All of them in some ways, I like to think that I put a little bit of myself in all my characters – even sometimes the ones I don’t like. I love language, words and I tend to give some of my characters that quality, and I tend to give the women (in this case, Elizabeth in Ride and Alice in Fourplay, my sense of humour – a kind of black irish humour, when all seems lost and doomed, an ability to laugh when the shit comes down – as well as giving them a dose of my old hopeful romanticism.
TAT:  What should people walk away with after seeing the shows?
JB: A window into humanity, a feeling they’ve been up close and personal to these six characters for a few hours and seen into their souls, and in doing so, perhaps looked into their own souls a little deeper – and asked themselves some tough and important questions. And a friend of mine, said the plays made her want to go out, get drunk and have sex! Which I’ll take credit for too.
Ride and Fourplay are on at Eternity Theatre, Sydney from 4th September – 4th October 2015.
Tickets and information here: