ENTERTAINMENT: Winning partnership take on Pirates

Since its 1999 inception, The Production Company has enriched Melbourne’s theatre scene with loving stagings of some of musical theatre’s best-known works – all of them produced in lightning fast time.

The Company’s upcoming production of The Pirates of Penzance is no different – the Star Observer chatted to director Dean Bryant on the second day of rehearsals, only a fortnight before the show begins its limited October 30-November 3 run.

Perhaps surprisingly, Bryant sounded rather relaxed about the daunting task ahead.

“Pirates of Penzance has a lot of singing in it, so we’ve got a very big cast – 16 men in the ensemble, seven women and then the six leads. It’s the biggest cast I’ve ever worked with, and there’s a lot of male belting going on,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

Bryant is joined on Pirates by his partner (both in work and in life), Mathew Frank, the show’s musical director. The pair met some 16 years ago when they were both attending the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), and have been together ever since. Their creative partnership began in the early stages of their relationship.

“I’d never thought of writing musicals before I met Mathew, but he was struggling to find a writer and I suggested I step in. He said ‘No, that sounds really bad for our relationship’, but I wore him down and the very first show we wrote, Prodigal, ended up going off-Broadway. That was when we felt it worked quite well,” said Bryant.

“We have worked together a lot, but on my last two Production Company shows my main relationship has really been with my co-director Andrew Hallsworth. My musical director’s changed each time. Matthew and I definitely work together as a creative team, but we do other projects as well. It gives you a bit more to talk about at home!”

Speaking of which, how do the pair cope with such a blurring of their personal and professional relationship? Do they have strict ‘No shop talk’ rule at home?

“Not really. We’re pretty good at going into relaxation mode. I guess if you were someone who had an exhausting 9-5 job, you’d want to shut off afterwards. But for me, working in theatre is such a lucky position to be in – getting paid to work in the theatre is such a blessing,” said Bryant.

Since that first show back in the early days of their relationship, Bryant and Frank have created a clutch of acclaimed theatre works, including Virgins: A Musical Threesome, Mr and Mrs Murder and this year’s Midsumma hit Gaybies. Bryant said taking the reins of a much-loved show like Pirates of Penzance was an entirely different challenge.

“You don’t want to get stuck in feeling you have to do it a certain way. Mathew and I are writers, so we want to respect Gilbert & Sullivan’s intentions, and approach it in almost an archaeological way – what were they trying to do and say? We respect the script, as opposed to the 150 years of tradition that’s grown up around it.”

 

INFO: Pirates of Penzance, Hamer Hall, October 30-November 3. theproductioncompany.com.au