East side story

East side story

When director Alex Galaezzi was first approached about directing the play The Prince of Brunswick East, he planned to turn down the offer.

The topic of the play -“ a father and his son sitting in a grandstand watching their favourite AFL football team -“ had virtually no appeal.

But when he attended a Sydney Swans game and experienced its sheer spectacle, and re-read the script again in a new light, he agreed to take on the play.

We are a sporting nation and the fact that sport is a form of theatre was such a bonus for me, he said.

But as I read the play more, I realised the depths of the ways it look at the relationships between fathers and sons and how they relate on the platform of sitting in a grandstand at a AFL game.

The Prince of Brunswick East follows three generations of a family across 40 years, as the men sit in the grandstand of the Brunswick Bulldogs Football Club.

Kim Knuckey stars as the father Stan, with Mike Smith as his son Ryan. It is when Ryan’s son Lane (Nick Osborne) appears in the final part of the story -“ as a gay man in love with the First Grade footy captain ­-“ that the relationship between the men takes a new direction.

I love the intimacy of this family and the acceptance of the gay son on that level, Galaezzi said.

I also loved the humour of the play, which is so potent, but it is humour which really makes you think about what it is you are laughing about.

The Prince of Brunswick East is on at The Old Fitzroy Theatre, Woolloomooloo. Bookings on 9294 4296 or at the Old Fitzroy website.

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