The unconventional rom-com Capricorn is written and directed by Butchulla and Kabi Kabi author Aidan Rowlingson, and follows the trajectory of ill-fated lovers Sam and Ally, taking each protagonists’ factors of view, in addition to that of their pet fish, Right here Fishy Fishy Fishy.
Rowlingson labored at La Boîte as a producer earlier than occurring to different roles with QPAC and the Queensland Music Pageant. He’s thrilled to lastly see his debut play by to showing on stage, overcoming 4 years of covid interruptions to lastly deliver it to fruition.
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“I feel this play, you may sit down and you may watch it as a tragedy or you may sit down and you may watch it with this hindsight of going, oh gosh, that was all a little bit bit ridiculous, wasn’t it?” Rowlingson mentioned.
“All of the humour and all of the tragedy is form of grounded and begins from this place of fact. And so all the pieces’s a little bit bit bittersweet.
“And I feel that the viewers will stroll away with this expertise of discovering the humour in one thing that all of us thought was actually tragic within the second. The lack of love or the heartbreak. It issues to us within the second.
“After which I feel when we now have the hindsight and we now have a variety of distance, we form of look again and we’re like, I can’t consider I threw my entire self into that. All of it appears bit foolish.”
Capricorn follows the fractured trajectory of a relationship in decline and asks whether or not it’s attainable to like somebody and hate them on the similar time.
Rowlingson mentioned it’s been fascinating watching the work evolve, significantly now as actors breathe new life into the work.
“I feel the fantastic thing about the natural course of is so many different individuals have been concerned within the creation of this work they usually’ve all introduced their tales and their experiences with love and heartache and all these form of very human issues,” he mentioned.
“We’ve actually been capable of create one thing that I feel speaks to a variety of completely different individuals.
“It’s humorous sufficient that on the earth of the play, there’s the goldfish disappearing and simply the way in which that the world and the information reacts to it. I wrote that earlier than the pandemic occurred and so it’s actually wild simply form of sitting again and watching all the pieces unfold on the similar time.”
That is the second present in 2023 from new La Boite Creative Director Courtney Stewart who has put her personal distinctive stamp on this system from her first days within the job. It additionally marks Rowlingson’s mainstage directorial debut.
Stewart is hoping her brave programming will problem individuals to rethink what the Australian canon of labor can seem like.
“Aiden is I feel an extremely thrilling voice. I really feel like he’s a younger inventive chief within the making and he’s bought an unbelievable story to inform. So I felt actually excited to leap on that one,” Stewart mentioned.
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“I knew Aidan’s writing would have extensive attraction to audiences with a variety of lived experiences and relationship constellations.”
Whereas Capricorn centres on the connection at its coronary heart, that hasn’t stopped Rowlingson from taking over greater points resembling institutional corruption and police energy within the play, bringing a First Nations perspective to those societal points.
“What we’re making an attempt to do with the work is form of have this concept about these items matter. Being a First Nations individual issues to those characters,” he mentioned.
“Being queer issues to those characters. Environmentalism and taking good care of nation and institutional corruption are all large issues that matter to those characters.
“I feel audiences might be very shocked about the way in which we current Indigeneity on this work. I feel we very a lot come from the place of our existence is highly effective and simply our day-to-day tales and our lives is political as effectively.
“It is a very Aboriginal work, however on the similar time it’s not about being Aboriginal. And so I feel I’m very excited to see individuals’s interpretation of how we cope with sure stuff round tradition and returning to nation and sorry enterprise and all these form of cultural facets that play a component in our lives.
“However in the identical vein because the political facet of the work, is these are simply issues which can be a part of us – that’s not the crux of the story.”
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