Tim Minchin and Toby Schmitz – in pictures

Tim Minchin at Walsh Bay, home of the Sydney Theatre Company Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Guardian

Actor-playwright Toby Schmitz at the STC Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Guardian

Schmitz has just won a part in the US series Black Sails, billed as 'Game of Thrones with pirates' Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Guardian

'The world of people who know my work in England and the US don't know my work as an actor, and I wanted to see if I still could,' says Minchin Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Guardian

Schmitz mid-interview at the STC Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Guardian

Minchin says he relishes collaboration: 'You do get a bit paranoid that you're becoming a sort of narcissist, an artistic solipsist, when you're doing stand-up' Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Guardian

Minchin and Schmitz with reporter Richard Cooke at the STC Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Guardian

'I played Judas, drank quite a lot of alcohol,' says Minchin of his research for the role Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Guardian

Schmitz is famed for his fastidious preparation. For Rosencrantz and Guildenstern he immersed himself in Hamlet and Tom Stoppard's work Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Guardian

The friends are aware that their busy schedules are likely to prevent them working together again – at least for a while Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Guardian