Perth Voice Interactive

THE interview with playwright Liz Newell was interrupted by exclamations of delight — and an ear-piercing scream from a kid throwing a tantrum a couple of aisles away.

“I’m in K-Mart looking to populate our set with things our character would like. I’m having a field day,” the Maylands local told me down the blower. Character Norah is the sort of person who stockpiles coconut water and goes to Ikea for fun, and a blue teapot caught her creator’s eye.

“Would she like that?” Newell asks. I like blue teapots, but not Ikea so am unable to give an opinion, especially over the phone.

Belated is Newell’s debut play, produced by Maiden Voyage, a theatre company she set up earlier this year to promote gender parity in an industry dominated by men.

“Nothing prevents women from being part of the industry and producing, but it’s engraved into our culture,” Newell says.

She’s not looking to produce female-only plays: “Being inclusive of women doesn’t men exclusivity of men… but being mindful in the early production to consider inclusivity of women.

“Where would we be without [characters] like Blanche and Stella [A Street Car Named Desire]…These fantastic incredible female characters of the stage. With a proven track record of longevity.”

Belated is a gritty piece of contemporary drama centering around a young woman on a collision course with her own past, an exploration of the murky territory between forgiveness and blame.

Blythe’s relationship ends abruptly and she finds herself homeless and crashing on the couch of her best friend Max and his girlfriend Norah.

Blythe and Max have been friends since they were kids.

Uninterested in keeping her shit together, she only says sorry when she doesn’t mean it.

Max has just quit smoking and Norah sees Blythe’s arrival as an invasion, and what starts as a mild inconvenience turns into a living nightmare.

With a bachelor of arts, but no formal theatre training, Newell was accepted into Black Swan Theatre’s writers’ group in 2015, where the seeds of Belated were planted.

Along with the idea of her own theatre company, because when it was ready to “see light of day” producing her own play seemed a natural progression: “After that I thought to set up the company.”

Belated is on at The Blue Room Theatre, James Street, Perth till May 28. Tix at blueroom.org.au or 9227 7005.

by JENNY D’ANGER