Mistaken identities

Actress Lynette Curran happily admits she loves fellow thespian Jackie Weaver. The two stage veterans have been treading the boards for the best part of four decades, and been close friends throughout that time.

But it could easily be understood if there was animosity between the pair, as mistaken identities more often than not lead to complications between people. Not so for Curran and Weaver, who have been regularly confused for each other throughout their respective careers.

As Curran, who most recently starred in Belvoir Street’s The Gates Of Egypt, says, People were coming up to Jackie during the run of that show and congratulating her on my performance, thinking they had seen her in the show.

Then one night in the foyer when she came to see it, she was sitting on the steps and this man came up to her and said, -˜Good luck on tonight’s show,’ but it was me about to put myself through the drama of that story.

This concept of the two actresses being mistaken for each other intrigued writer Timothy Daly a few years back when he was working with the pair at the Sydney Theatre Company.

That was five years ago in the wake of the death of director Richard Wherrett, Weaver’s close friend and companion, and she was deeply grieving the loss. Curran recalls she was concerned about Weaver, and suggested to Daly he should write a play for the pair to cheer Weaver up.

That play is now completed, and this week Derrida In Love has its world premiere at the Ensemble Theatre, with Weaver playing the sexually adventurous Lina, a married woman who, in a narcissistic twist, falls for a woman in her own likeness, as played by Curran.

But Curran’s character Jacqueline, who infiltrates all the lives within Lina’s circle, has some dangerous agenda in mind.

Jackie and I do get a love scene and we do go the pash, and that is fine by me as I do love her, Curran says. We have been such close friends for years, so it is nice to have that kind of scene with someone I like.

But what is going on between the characters is based on Lina’s attraction to someone so like herself, and that then takes some interesting turns. This is a great play and we are laughing a lot.

While Curran is having a busy year on stage, she is also appearing on TV in the latest season of the brilliant Foxtel drama, Love My Way, in which she plays the loving and devoted Catholic mother Brenda.

I love playing her as Brenda is a strong character and, in this new series, she is a lynchpin for some of what goes on. She is always worth watching to see what she will do next.

Derrida In Love is on at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli. Bookings on 9929 0644.