Theatre

By 5pound Theatre 

Saraswati Mahavidhyalaya

Interview by James Burnside with Freya Pragt and Jason Cavanagh 

The production of Ariel Dorfman’s dark tale about love and betrayal Purgatorio, produced by the independent theatre companies 5Pound Theatre and Attic Erratic, has proven a popular show in the theatres of Melbourne. The 2016 Fringe Festival marks the first time the show will be performed in Perth, and the task has fallen to Jason Cavanagh and Freya Pragt as lead actors. Jason is a veteran of the stage who owns the theatre company 5Pound Theatre and Freya originally studied at the Victorian College of the Arts before finding prominent parts in Cavanagh’s company. After a successful season in Melbourne, the duo anticipate playing to Perth audiences for the first time.

While the play itself is a dark and perhaps confronting look at love, loss, revenge and redemption, its two actors are almost disarmingly jovial and approachable as they speak very happily and candidly about their time in theatre, and Purgatorio in particular.

Freya, a former Perth resident herself, shares a lot of her excitement about being back home and seeing family and friends again, and expresses enthusiasm about being in the Perth Fringe.

“Really excited to be a part of it,” she says eagerly. “Especially with this show because it did very well in Melbourne and we’re interested in seeing the reactions from the Perth crew.’’

“Yeah, really excited to be performing Purgatorio,’’ Jason chimes in. “It’s a really – weird to say – fun show to be performing because the themes are quite heavy; but it is a fun show to perform in. There’s a lot of variation, a lot of guts to it, and it kind of has the best parts of Greek Tragedy to it in terms of the themes.”

When asked to give a plot outline about the play itself, Jason and Freya describe it as a ‘love story’ but one about “two people who love each other but who also hurt each other a great deal. In fact, they’ve hurt each other more than anyone else in the world. It’s set in purgatory and it’s the tale of the cyclical nature of revenge and forgiveness,” says Jason.

While the title Purgatorio invokes something akin to the Divine Comedy, according to Freya, although the title comes from the works of Dante it was also used just because the playwright, Argentinian-Chilean Ariel Dorfman, happened to like the name. From Freya’s perspective the version of purgatory in the work comes off as a “Buddhist idea of purgatory – it’s more about being reborn.”

Purgatorio is structured very simply, with minimal set design and only two actors, who play opposite sides of an aggressive argument that quickly escalates. But that simple structure makes way for some unique challenges. For Freya the best thing about Purgatorio compared to other shows she has done is the challenge of having to invest all the thematic energy of the text into their voice and performance.

“The fact that it’s just two actors is a real challenge and a real treat because you only really have each other. And again not giving too much away there’s not a lot of stage devices on our stage so it’s an exercise in acting and directing. So what I kind of love about it is I think the emotional range the characters both allow for, and the argument throughout the whole piece.”

Jason likens performing the play and the play itself as being akin to a train.

“It just goes and speeds up and speeds up and you get to the end of the thing and it’s like I’ve not breathed all the way through. You come off after every show just being really exhausted.”

The nature of the play’s central conflict – the conflict between the two lovers who ultimately destroy each other – is inherently divisive. Jason and Freya agree that the way the audience gets divided between who they personally think is in ‘the right’ is a huge measure of the play’s success. The two have become so in tune with their characters that the argument over right and wrong even finds its way off stage as well. Laughing, they both admit to arguing over who is in the right and wrong even when they aren’t rehearsing.

“It’s so obvious he’s in the right,” Jason says with a laugh, prompting Freya to rebut, “It’s so obvious she’s in the right!

In the words of the people who know it best, Purgatorio is a play about love and betrayal that tears the audience right down the middle as to which side they stand on. While the actors have their opinions on the matter, for the play’s 10-day running time in January for Fringe, Perth audiences will get a chance to decide for themselves.

Purgatorio runs from January 21-31 at the Saraswati Mahavidhyalaya venue on Beaufort Street. Tickets available here.