Opening the gates

As he chats about his new play, Damian Rice makes a striking impression. With his thick moustache and a head of shaggy hair, he looks like a Sutherland Shire boy who could have been in the midst of the fracas during the Cronulla riots.

Which is the look the director wanted, Rice explains -“ middle-Australian suburbanite is the type of role he is playing in his latest stage venture, the world premiere of Stephen Sewell’s The Gates Of Egypt at the Belvoir Street Theatre.

The play deals with Clarice, a recently widowed Australian woman who fulfils a lifelong dream by travelling to Egypt.

But as her planned trip is at the time of the Israel-Lebanon conflict, her decision is met with anger by her fearful family. When she returns home with a new lover, an Egyptian man, the family’s tolerance of other cultures is put to the test.

Rice plays Clarice’s son-in-law Ralph, a Sylvania Waters builder who presides over a booming construction empire. Lynette Curran, Michael Denkha, Russell Kiefel, Jacqueline Linke and Anna Lise Phillips are also in the cast.

I think this play is an important work as it examines our complicity with the whole political agenda in the world, Rice says during a break in rehearsals. It makes us think about the political, but it is depicted in a very personal journey.

We have these contrasting scenes of Australia and the Middle East, and we all tend to have this feeling Australia is a really safe place. But what we are exploring is the danger in Australia as well as the Middle East.

Observing and commenting on the state of the nation is something that is important to Rice, as he speaks passionately about his role as an Australia Day ambassador, and his trip last week to the rural town of Forbes to address an Australian Day gathering.

It is a role Rice has taken on since he was propelled to national fame through the landmark 1990s TV series G.P., when he played the gay doctor Martin Dempsey.

Often the whole Australia Day thing can seem a bit daggy, but for me it is a great honour to comment on what Australia is and where we are going, he says.

I prefer to go to the bush and speak. I meet some incredibly inspirational people out there and the majority of Australians are happy to accept you for who you are.

I always take my partner and there is no discussion about the gay agenda, as that is not why I am there, and yet people make us feel so welcome. I believe the majority of Australians are totally fine with whoever you are, as long as you are honest. Once they have worked that out with you, they are fine.

Eleven years after G.P. went off the air, Rice says he is happy to still be associated with the drama and with the character as both proved such milestones on Australian TV.

G.P. was a significant thing to do and I was proud to do it, he says. It did categorise me for a while, but I became an actor as I felt I had something to say. The roles that mean something are the ones that say something important.

And it is for the same reason I am doing this play.

The Gates Of Egypt opens 8 February at Belvoir Street Theatre. Bookings on 9699 3444 or at www.belvoir.com.au.