No time like the past
Remarkable Theatre’s annual main show will open this Friday, reflecting on “the good old days,” questioning who they were actually good for. Home, I’m Darling will run until Saturday, 19 September and is the biggest show of the year for the group. It’s packed with razor-dry wit, provocative characters and unsettling honesty.
From stunning set designs reflecting the picture-perfect 1950's aesthetic to hilarious moments, and some more topical undertones, Home, I’m Darling, is directed by Janey Bytheway. The Olivier Award-winning play is a sharply crafted dark comedy that takes a timely look at modern relationships, ambition, and the gender divide.
“It’s almost, like, squirming in your seat,” Bytheway says when describing dark comedy. “It’s so relatable – I will say that about every character in this, they are real people and you will know every single character.”
Act two, scene five is apparently the crux of this dark comedy – Bytheway assures that you’ll know it when it comes around and will be cringing, in a good way. The show follows Judy and Johnny, a married couple who are living in the wrong decade. Set in modern times, the pair are trying to live a traditional 1950-style life. The man is the breadwinner at work every day while the woman stays at home to keep the house.
“It’s a woman in a domestic situation trying to make the choices she can with the tools she has. She’s not the perfect housewife because the perfect housewife doesn’t exist.”
The ideas that Judy has come up with to make her life easier and her husband happier are ideas that have been gifted from a society that doesn’t exist anymore. “Nostalgia is something that can never truly be lived.” There’s a few twists and turns throughout the show with some underlying messages including that things were pretty good for straight white men, but not really anyone else.
“It’s always going back to nostalgia being better than the reality of it. She has this idea of simplifying their life, simplifying her place in their life, but she does it to her own detriment.”
Bytheway has performed with Remarkable Theatre for a couple of years now and was ready to step into directing this time around. The premise really appealed to her and she loves visual storytelling, of which this has plenty. She really enjoyed diving in and exploring all the play had to offer.
“I love storytelling in all its forms, and what I love most about it is that I love a story within a story. We have the façade which you could follow the whole way – the whole play is subtext, apart from two characters who are honest in it, everything is subtext. Whether that be trying to keep a perfect life or trying to communicate with someone honestly but you just don’t know how to do it.”
She’s proud of all the cast and crew involved and proud that each actor has brought their character to life and is looking forward to seeing the look on people’s faces as they interpret the show in their own way.
“You don’t have to agree on any of the issues in this. You don’t have to think she’s made the right decision or wrong, but you do get to choose what your interpretation is watching another person do that.”
Remarkable Theatre’s Home, I’m Darling, will run from Friday, 11 – Saturday, 19 September at Arrowtown Athenaeum Hall. Tickets and more information on the show is available at events.humanitix.com/home-im-darling and you can follow Remarkable Theatre on Facebook for regular update on this and other upcoming productions.
