Play shows love is a battlefield

The SBW Stables Theatre is taking on a Tom Holloway play this month starring Brett Stiller, best known for his performances in Tommy Murphy’s extraordinary plays Holding the Man and Strangers in Between.
Don’t Say the Words is set in a contemporary Australian landscape and is based on Aeschylus’s Agamemnon.
As in the original, a soldier returns from war and is killed by his unfaithful wife, Stiller told Sydney Star Observer.
It’s about love and betrayal and choice and jealousy and rage and hope, so everyone human can relate to it. There are many messages and ideas. Once deciphered there’s a great deal of food for thought. It’d be a shame for me to give it all away here.
The show is running until 28 July and Stiller is playing the character Aegesthius.
He’s the lover and accomplice. There’s a massive journey for him. He struggles to justify his role and motive in the murder of his cousin. You see him battle with the choice to be involved and the repercussions of being so, Stiller said.
I’ve actually never worked on something quite like it. The subject matter of the play has been immensely difficult to access. Each night we contemplate a brutal act so it’s emotionally very draining for all of us.
Holloway’s dialogue is very intricate. We need to be so alert and focused during the show so we don’t miss a beat or disrupt its rhythm. On the flip, there’s a great sense of accomplishment at the end of the show each night. We feel we’ve told a good story.
info: Tickets for Don’t Say the Words start at $25. For bookings call 1300 306 776 or go to
www.griffintheatre.com.au.