Almost Face to Face
Audiences will be transported from a darkened Darwin theatre to Dublin’s underbelly in an intimate one-man monologue that explores the fringes of society.
By Kylie Stevenson
Award-winning playwright and actor Stephen House is bringing his powerful performance Almost Face to Face to this year’s Darwin Fringe Festival.
Described as risky, honest, brutal and human, the monologue follows a writer’s creative process and his journey into the underworld of Dublin, where he encounters the homeless, drug dealers, sex workers and other people on the outer.
“It’s fiction but is quite affected by things I’ve done in my own life,” says House, who was inspired to write the piece during an Australia Council Irish Literature Residency.
“I’m attracted to the world we don’t often hear about or write about, as an artist and as a human being.”
House was nominated for a Green Room Best Actor award for Almost Face to Face in 2014 and has been performing the show around the country and internationally for more than three years.
“The performance has grown over time,” he says.
“Monologue is such an intense theatrical form and I’ve learnt something new through each performance. It’s become slicker, tighter, more emotional and more immediate.”
Monologue is House’s favourite form of theatre, as it allows him to draw together all the elements of theatre he loves – poetry, spoken word, acting and storytelling.
Almost Face to Face is part of a trilogy of unconnected monologues. It follows the award-winning Appalling Behaviour set in the streets of Paris. The third piece in the series takes place in New Delhi and is still being drafted.
Of the more than 20 plays he’s written, House says Almost Face to Face is the work he’s proudest of.
“Even though it goes to risky and dark places, it still has hope and humour,” he says.
“I find glimmers of light that exist in the shadows.”
Audiences attending the Darwin show will also receive a place in House’s workshop, which explores writing and performing your own work.
TUE 10 – SAT 14 JUL | 7.15PM | WORKSHOP SAT 14 JUL, 11.30AM-1PM | BROWN’S MART ATTIC | $25 | $15 CONC darwinfringe.org.au
