In The Block Universe time happens simultaneously, so just as you’re reading this interview every other moment in the history of Time is also happening exactly now. Scary huh?
We sat down with Briallen Clarke, who stars in the premiere of this new Australian work, to talk about the play’s existential time concept.
So… Could you tell us a little bit about The Block Universe?
The idea about block universe theory of time is that every moment exists at the same time. Every moment in your life. So everything has already happened and is happening, sort of like the film Interstellar. It’s all coexisting and you’re just living in the moment that you are able to. There is a book referenced in the play called Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut). It talks about how human brains can only understand one moment at a time and that is why it seems like everything is happening in a linear order.
Slaughterhouse-Five sounds like a pretty intense ride…
It speaks to The Block Universe’s writer Sam O’Sullivan and his interests. We talk about it a little bit in the play but I think really it’s a premise for how the play is structured. It’s this fractured story that’s completely out of order so we’re seeing all the moments of this relationship between Andrew and Christina happening. It gives you the opportunity to see the different moments right up next to each other- so it could be like the first moment they meet to when they’ve known each other for a year and they’re living together and raising a child. It’s a really interesting way for the story to unfold, as opposed to “they meet and they fall in love…” so you never know where it’s really going or where you’re going to drop in.
And does that make it more of a challenge as an actor?
The play is very cleverly written and very satisfying in the way it unfolds. You’re definitely still trying to keep up with it because all the pieces of the puzzle are coming together at different moments. Jacob Warner, who plays Andrew, doesn’t leave the stage at all. It’s definitely an interesting challenge. I haven’t done a two-hander before, and with two people you really don’t stop!
The Block was written by Sam O’Sullivan. A fellow NIDA graduate of yours I believe?
Yes! Sam and I were in the same year at drama school and we both graduated from the acting program. Even then Sam was writing, and we did readings as a class of some of his work that he was doing so I’ve always known him to be a writer alongside being a gifted actor. He came to me with this play at the end of 2013 and we did a reading of it as part of the Somersault Play Workshop. That was the first time Sam had heard it aloud, and then at the end of 2014 there was a two-day workshop on the play which I came back for. That was when the director Dominic Mercer became attached, who was the perfect fit as he works a lot as a dramaturge as well. Then out of that workshop there was a really wonderful audience response so Sam reworked parts of it and two and a half years later we’re finally having it staged! It’s really satisfying! It definitely makes me appreciate how hard it is to get new work staged in Australia.
How does it differ performing in something on the Sydney Theatre Company stage like Hayfever to a smaller more intimate venue like The Block Universe at the Old 505 Theatre?
They are such different styles of work, Hayfever really speaks to a 500 seat theatre because it’s so theatrical and heightened and large cast- it’s big and bombastic. Whereas I think The Block Universe really suits a more intimate space, because it is just a story about two people and you literally can see everyone in the audience from the stage. Whilst it does have these surrealist moments and heighted moments of theatricality in the play, a lot of it is naturalistic scenes and you’re really gaining an intimate insight into these two people and their relationship. So it really lends itself to a space like 505.
And what’s up next for you?
After this all my theatre bookings are wrapped up for the year. I’m actually planning to go back and do some further study overseas again. I’ve been going over bi-annually for the past few years to study at The Groundlings in Los Angeles on sketch comedy and improvisation, which is something I’m pretty passionate about.
And finally, if you could time jump to any period where would you go to and why?
It sounds cliché but I would love to go to the roaring twenties or something like that. New York City 1920s- the fashion and decadence, the lifestyle, amongst the bubble that hadn’t burst yet!
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Briallen will be performing in The Block Universe (Or So It Goes) until the 25th June at The Old 505 Theatre in Sydney’s Newtown. For more information and to book visit http://old505theatre.com/shows/the-block-universe-or-so-it-goes-1448250094.html
Production Photography (c) by Kate Williams Photography
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