In Love again
Amanda Muggleton is surrounded by a mess. As she chats, she describes the contents of the 16 bags surrounding her, having only an hour earlier arrived in her Sydney home after six months on the road starring in a variety of plays.
She is happy to be home, and even happier to be back with a play she loves. Love Child, the story of a mother confronted with the grown-up daughter she gave up for adoption years before, opens in Parramatta in the coming weeks.
Muggleton has just played a season of the queer Joe Orton classic, Entertaining Mr Sloane, in Melbourne, as a sister who competed with her brother for the affections of the very dangerous Mr Sloane.
But now, Muggleton says she is ready to get to work on Love Child, a play she first tackled 13 years ago. She makes the surprise admission that, back in 1993, she was not yet ready to play as complex a role as Anna. Melinda Dransfield co-stars as the daughter Billie.
This time around, she feels the intervening years of life have better prepared her. I was not yet ripe enough as an actor then to go to the depths of this play, Muggleton admits. Life since then has knocked me around a bit more, and I know how to handle this.
In the play, this young girl completely turns Anna upside down. You have to be in a certain space to go to those darker depths, and I think I take life a little more seriously now than I did then. I think that is helping me nail Anna this time around. But I do know I didn’t nail it last time.
Another thing Muggleton seems sure of is her to desire to stay in Sydney for the time being. It seems life on the road has been taking its toll, so she wants to be home for a while as she considers scripts for new projects. The star of such hits as Annie, Master Class and Steaming is also planning a local season of her one-woman cabaret show.
While Muggleton has established herself as one of the marquee star names of the Australian stage, there is an early TV role of her career she is still proudly associated with. For three years she was the conniving Chrissie Latham on Prisoner.
While she left the series 22 years ago, the well-spoken UK-born actress still drops back into a cockney accent when she speaks about her TV days behind bars.
I am so proud of my work on Prisoner as it was such a major breakthrough for women, she recalls. Up to that point on TV, we either had handguns in our handbags as cops, or [we played] a tart or a bashed wife.
When Prisoner came along, women could be angry, rude, sexy and foul-mouthed. It was such a relief.
With a degree of delight, Muggleton also recalls Chrissie Latham’s temperate foray into lesbianism.
That was hilarious as Chrissie was totally into cock, Muggleton laughs. It was such a tame scene, with another woman coming into Chrissie’s cell and kissing her on the neck as the door closed behind them. So that was the extent of my lesbian scenes, but for the time it caused such a stir!
Love Child plays 17-21 April at the Parramatta Riverside Theatres. Bookings on 8839 3399 or at www.riversideparramatta.com.au.
