She may be known for her dramatic roles – including on TV’s Sea Patrol and Blue Heelers, and in films like Little Fish – but the actor Lisa McCune says she always looks for the lighter moments in the characters she takes on. “As human beings, when things are dire, laughter can be the best remedy.”
So it is with her role in Machu Picchu, the new work by the Australian playwright Sue Smith, currently playing at Sydney Theatre Company before it heads to Adelaide. McCune plays Gabby, a middle-aged civil engineer who is pushed to reassess her life after her husband becomes a quadriplegic. It’s potentially dark and tragic dramatic territory but Smith underscores the play with levity, absurdity and music, and offers McCune room to explore her sillier side: wearing non-matching shoes, splashing around in a paddling pool, knocking out an a cappella version of Ratcat’s 1991 hit Don’t Go Now. “That’s what I love about this play: the ability to laugh is there,” McCune says.
The play marks McCune’s return to STC 10 years after she starred in the highly successful Urinetown, a co-production with the Melbourne Theatre Company. For her, the appeal was the opportunity to work closely with Smith during the play’s development. “We don’t get access to a lot of writers as performers – they are usually the missing link in the [actor’s] creative process.”
It was also an opportunity to work again with Darren Gilshenan, who co-starred in Urinetown. In Machu Picchu, Gilshenan plays Gabby’s husband Paul, who is confined to a hospital bed for large sections of the play – a challenge for the actor, who is known for his physical comedy roles in Here Come the Habibs, The Moodys and Full Frontal.
One in five Australians are affected by disability and, during the development of the play, Gilshenan and Smith spent time with those who have been disabled through accident. The actor says he was struck by their resilience and by how many viewed their accident in a positive light, as transformative or life-affirming. “That’s what I’ve learnt: it’s as normal as my life.”
An acquired disability also affects family members and friends, who are often suddenly cast as carers. McCune’s character, Gabby, struggles with her new role, straining at the added responsibilities and the changed relationship with her husband.
The actor says she isn’t sure how she would cope as a carer. “I imagine it can be a really lonely place sometimes and they [carers] are forgotten initially. Their normal changes to such a degree that they say the patient will actually move through that time quicker, that their normal will settle before the carer.”
Machu Picchu also looks at how relationships grow in complexity as they reach middle-age – a theme not often seen on stage. Gilshenan compares the differences between Shakespearean plays Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra. “[Antony and Cleopatra] is [about] an extraordinary relationship, incredibly complex – but it’s also known as a problem play, because it is so complex. Whereas Romeo and Juliet is quite straight and easy: boy meets girl, a few obstacles along the way and that’s it. They will only ever be together, whereas the other two have been around the block a few times.”
The characters in Smith’s play have known each other for long enough that they know how to push each other to the limits – a barbed kind of intimacy that both actors found challenging and invigorating. “You can hit each other emotionally when you have such a strong base. You really do shake things up, which is great [for an actor] to be able to do,” says Gilshenan, “whereas in a fledgling relationship, one fight could be the end of it.
“These guys really go through the wringer together and our explorations as we worked on it were, how far can we go in this scene? How far can I drive her away?”
The play also tackles middle-class guilt, revolving around affluent, educated and otherwise fortunate people who are dissatisfied with their lives and feel bad about it. It’s a theme that’s featured in many recent plays, including the MTC/STC co-production Jumpy and David Williamson’s Jack of Hearts – and it’s something that many in the STC audience are likely to relate to. Gilshenan certainly does: “I think I was born with a sense of dissatisfaction,” he says. “I’m always thinking I should be doing something else, or I should be doing more.”
One of the funniest moments in the play takes place when the characters and their close friends go to an overpriced health spa for a week of yoga, mindfulness and healthy living. McCune says she’d like to try a health camp – but Gilshenan, just like his character, is sceptical. “For me, there is something about it which seems like a quick fix, something that is too well marketed with shiny posters. There’s such a big push today when you think of personal trainers, or life coaches; it’s another whole massive industry.”
Unsurprisingly the play’s message is to appreciate life more and both actors say they have been inspired by it to reflect on their own lives.
“Having the opportunity to really focus on one of the major themes in this play has calmed me down over the last two months, in such an extraordinary way,” Gilshenan says. “It’s allowed me to stop and appreciate the moment.”
McCune agrees. “Maybe it’s what happens in your 40s, I don’t know, but it’s happening to me. I just want to stop and I want to feel, and I want to be thoughtful and embrace a bit more.”
- Machu Picchu is on at Sydney Theatre Company until 9 April, before transferring to Adelaide’s Dunstan Playhouse from 13 April to 1 May
