INTERVIEW WITH ACTRESS TASHA O’BRIEN FROM THE BIG MEAL

By Mark Morellini

A young man and woman meet in an ordinary American restaurant, a meeting which paves the way for a grand story that spans over 80 years…….

Sydney based actress, Tasha O’Brien talks about The Big Meal, an ambitious stage play which has received much accolade in America and is about to premiere in Australia at The Depot Theatre…….

TELL ME ABOUT THIS PLAY? 

So this is a very unusual play, I think.

It is set in America and follows five generations of a particular family over about an 80 year period. There are eight actors but we don’t play one character each, we play age brackets, so as the characters age over the 80 years, we swap who plays the characters.

I think it’s a combination of comedy and drama. There are very funny scenes, but as the play has such a huge time span and the focus is on life and death, some characters don’t necessarily make it to the end.

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF AND THE CHARACTER YOU PORTRAY? DID YOU LEARN THE AMERICAN ACCENT SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS PLAY? WAS IT DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO PUT ON AN AMERICAN ACCENT FOR THE DURATION OF THE PLAY?

I’m 23 and I studied acting at the University of Wollongong and have spent the last few years in the independent Sydney theatre scene. I play five characters throughout the play, all with different amounts of stage time, so arguably the main female character (which three of us play in total), as well as the younger generations and their respective partners.

I was lucky enough to have just come off the back of doing another play, which also happened to be at the Depot, which also required an American accent so it wasn’t super difficult for me to pick up on it, but it’s definitely still a challenge to maintain a certain level of authenticity and learning from the last play things I still need to improve on in terms of the accent.

THE BIG MEAL SPANS 80 YEARS IN 90 MINUTES – WAS THIS CHALLENGING THEATER TO PERFORM AND STAGE?

Absolutely.

Not only are we playing multiple characters and having to differentiate them, but we also play the same characters as each other so you have to be mindful of the way other actors are portraying those characters so that the audience have that level of belief that it is the same character just a different age.

We had to pick up on if certain characters had certain habits or ticks, if they pronounced certain words in a certain way, and just an overall demeanour so that people could realise “oh right so they’re playing that person now”.

The shifts in time are also so quick, sometimes almost imperceptible so staging that has been a huge challenge.

Dan LeFranc writes in the introduction that the shifts “are placed in the script primarily to help the actors, not the audience” and that “it’s okay if they’re a little behind the play” but obviously we don’t want them to not be following it because it is such a jam packed script and there is so much going on at all times that if we aren’t clear enough the whole play will just be white noise.

WHAT ARE THE THEMES/MESSAGES IN THE PLAY?

It’s all about life and everything that comes with that, the good and the bad. It looks at family and how that can be very different for people even within the same family, whether you’re the golden child or if you’re the outcast, and how that shapes you and impacts the rest of your life.

It’s that vicious cycle of children not wanting to be like their parents but inevitably ending up just like them and passing that on to their own kids and so on and so on.

Death is a huge theme – the different ways of dying, the consequences of someone dying and the timing of when someone dies. It’s also all about looking back at your own life, your regrets, your expectations versus your reality, and questioning what you did or didn’t do.

HOW DOES IT FEEL PERFORMING IN THE AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE OF A PLAY WHICH HAS RECEIVED SO MUCH ACCOLADE IN THE US?

It’s so exciting. The first time I read this script I was hooked.

There’s so much in this play and the way Dan LeFranc has written it is so engaging and so challenging. The best thing is that, yes it’s an American play and we’re using American accents but it’s so universal. The themes are so common and relatable that it doesn’t matter where this is put on, everyone will understand it.

I feel privileged to be putting on this play for the first time here because it’s such a worthy script and clearly it’s getting the recognition it deserves and we’re lucky to be providing another platform for it to be seen.

WHAT AUDIENCES WOULD THIS SHOW APPEAL TO? IS IT FAMILY VIEWING?

Oh anyone. Easily. It’s a play about life, so you will relate to someone and you will recognise these characters as people in your own life. If family is the most important thing in your life you’ll love this play. If you don’t particularly get along with your family, you’ll still love this play, because there are characters provided to show those dynamics.

It should be family viewing, it doesn’t have anything too confronting to deter someone from coming, it’s just that it’s so close to reality that it’s not an escapist play. If you don’t like the harsh realities of life, like death being inevitable, then maybe think twice.

Oct 18–Nov 4. The Depot Theatre, 142 Addison Rd, Marrickville. $22-$32. Tickets & Info: www.thedepottheatre.com