Tim Freedman opens up about truth, beauty and A Picture of You
Image: Whitlams frontman and playwright Alex Broun talk truth, beauty and old times
When you first set eyes on the blurb of Truth, Beauty and a Picture of You, it’s hard not to think this is a play about the Whitlams themselves.
“[It’s] about the hope you find when all hope seems gone, as four lost souls struggle to find peace with themselves and their pasts,” the website proclaims.
So grounded is the Whitlams’ back catalogue in soul-searching, melancholy and Sydney’s inner west that it seems obviously biographical. The names are hauntingly familiar: the show’s Tom, Anton and Stewie evoke Tim Freedman, Andy Lewis and Stevie Plunder, the founding members of the band, while another character Charlie is also the namesake of a Whitlams trilogy from the 1997 classic Eternal Nightcap.
The play’s tragedy mirrors real life too. Stewie dies, as Plunder tragically did in 1996, leaving those behind to “wrestle with their own demons”. For Andy Lewis, who left the band in 1995, those demons would get the better of him just four years later.
But there are differences too, and Freedman is adamant that Truth does not tell the story of the Whitlams, even if there are some sad similarities.
“It’s basically about millieu. Certainly one or two of the characters have some world-wise and gruff reaction to things, which I didn’t find difficult to write. But it’s not based on my life events or anything like that,” he explained.
The production was conceived of by Alex Broun, an old friend of Freedman’s. The two played football together for the Newtown Slammers more than 20 years ago. Broun went on to become a playwright and a key force behind Short + Sweet, which began as an exhibition of ten minute plays in Sydney and has since branched out to become an international festival with events in New Zealand, Singapore and Dubai.
Broun and Freedman co-wrote the book, and though the former is famous for his bite-sized works, Truth will be a full-length production spanning the emotional peaks and troughs of the Whitlams’ song book — from the cheeky humour of ‘Laugh in their Faces’ to the deep melancholy of ‘Keep the Light On’.
Freedman says he helped craft the script to “make the dialogue sound as if musicians would have talked to each other”. Unlike the Whitlams, whose success was enduring, Stewie, Anton and Charlie experience a fleeting minute in the sun.
“It’s very un-idealised. These guys [in the musical] had a little moment. There was no pot at the end of the rainbow. It’s not a rags to riches tale.”
Truth is about “a moment when a young man finds out a secret that shakes his world”, Freedman says. This connects well with his songs, which are, in his words, mostly “about friendship, often male”.
Neither Freedman nor Broun are part of the small cast, which consists of Ian Stenlake, Scott Irwin, Erica Lovell, Toby Francis and Ross Chisari. Freedman will scratch his performance itch on a tour later in the year, performing the songs of Harry Nilsson, whom he admires as both a musician and a “magnetic personality”.
“In the first half of his career, [Nilsson] wrote some deceptively intricate pop songs,” Freedman says. “And then of course there’s the lurid detail that everyone always seemed to want to stay up all night with Harry.”
There’s no one knocking on Freedman’s door at midnight anymore, one of the stark realities of being a single dad. But it wasn’t hard to reach back and recall those heady, boyish days for the purpose of putting together Truth.
“It’s only 20 years ago,” Freedman says. “It sort of seems like yesterday, really.
Hayes Theatre Company, 19 Greenknowe Ave, Potts Point
Dates: May 9 – June 1
Opening Night: May 14
Times: Tuesday to Saturday at 7.30pm, Saturday at 2pm & 7.30pm, and Sunday at 5pm
Tickets: Adult $48, Concession $42
Bookings: www.hayestheatre.com.au or phone 02 8065 7337
