Murphy returns to Saturn

He may be an award-winning playwright, but even Tommy Murphy experiences moments of existential crisis.

For this young writer the trials of a quarter-life crisis have only led to the production of another intriguing theatre piece, entitled Saturn Returns, which is sure to woo crowds and help with any moments of impending self-doubt.

Focusing around the astrological belief that a return of Saturn into a person’s birth house in their 28th year leads to a period of internal struggle and questioning, Saturn Returns is the perfect choice as the launchpad for the Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf2Loud season -” a program of plays designed to showcase young talent.

The play follows the story of Zara as she enters her 28th year and starts to feel that the universe is conspiring against her. The once far-off prospects of family, mortgages and lifetime commitments suddenly seem to be right at Zara’s doorstep and she’s not quite ready to submit.

Sparking a journey of personal exploration, audiences are invited to come along and join in the questioning process.

It’s a life experience that is incredibly close to Murphy, who says the idea was sparked when his own sister used the term Saturn returning to explain what he was going through.

I’d heard the phrase but I didn’t actually know what it meant and so when she said that to me I just thought it was such an intriguing thing that something outside of yourself might impact on your destiny, and I thought, well that sounds dramatic and what will happen if I put a character through a very extreme version of that? Murphy told Sydney Star Observer.

Although the play centres around the experiences of a heterosexual woman facing her biological clock, Murphy says the dilemmas faced by her are no different from those faced by young GLBT people.

The choice to make it about a woman and have the possibility of reproductive sex right there in the room was really about theatricality, but I don’t think there is any difference in the problems faced by young homosexuals, and I know that from my own experiences, he said.

I think that a homosexual crisis over fertility was actually one of the reasons I wrote the play, it’s kind of my writer’s secret.

I’m no expert or particularly strong believer in astrology but for whatever reasons, it does feel as you approach 30 that you are invited to challenge the things that are important to you and so I feel I have been doing that lately.

This is particularly true in relation to Murphy’s choice to take up Cate Blanchett and David Upton’s invitation to produce something stirring for Wharf2Loud.

Saturn Returns sees Murphy team up once more with director David Berthold to take on the challenge.

There was a genuine chance to be quite experimental and it feels to me that the Wharf2Loud season tries perhaps to broaden the banner of what we count as theatre in Sydney, Murphy said.

Working with David was perfect because of our strong history, you really do trust each other but also, because you know each other’s strengths you kind of want to stretch each other rather than providing for those strengths and I guess that’s where it’s useful, in wanting to challenge each other.

I think also for David and me, coming out of Holding the Man had a kind of particular call to play with theatre, to make use of the theatrical form.