Stay Woke

Everyone has been to a social dinner party or family holiday when suddenly the conversation turns political. The Darlinghurst Theatre’s newest show, Stay Woke, explores this very experience and the influence “woke culture” has had on society.

Written by Aran Thangaratnam & Directed by Bridget Balodis Stay Woke sees two brothers, Niv and Sai, attempting to put there ideological differences aside in order to enjoy their trip to the mountains together. In a recent conversation with City Hub Dushan Phillips & Kaivu Suvarna spoke about how important it was for them as actors of colour to be performing in this show.

“It’s super important,” Kaivu said before expanding in more detail. “I haven’t really been able to inhabit a brown character that was written as a brown character with a real sense of humanity and importance to the story before.” Dushan was then quick to add, “This is not only a brown role but we’re seeing a lot more brown bums on seats as well… It’s just so humbling to see people genuinely back this show and recognise that our stories are being told. It’s really nice to have our work be recognised by more than just the conventional theatre audience but also those that otherwise wouldn’t frequent the theatre.”

With the show focusing on telling an authentic “brown” story neither Dushan or Kaivu had to look far for inspiration for their characters. “To be honest this is the closest that we have ever been cast to ourselves,” said Kaivu, “I would argue that this project has been more about letting myself into the character rather than looking elsewhere.”

Despite these roles being very similar to their own personalities Dushan explained that is was still a very challenging role to prepare for.

“The biggest challenge for me with this role was to realise that I had my defences up towards people being racist towards me, but my character didn’t have that. So I had to learn to undo a lot of the defences that I had built as Dushan. In turn that made this a very deeply personal experience in preparing for this role.”

In regards to the writing of this show Dushan and Kaivu both agreed that despite Stay Woke being billed as comedy it leans more heavily into the drama, which then in turn builds upon the comedic element.

“I would say that we lean very heavily into the drama and in doing so the humour seems to also elevate alongside that as each mounts on top of the other,” explained Dushan. “This show unapologetically ventures down the path of being crass or in your face whether you are white, brown, vegan, non-vegan, etc. The show then uses humour as a way to allow you to process those thoughts so that ultimately we can all unite through the recognition that it’s all just a laugh.”

For that very reason Dushan says Aran Thangaratnam’s writing was “actually quite genius” because Stay Woke doesn’t “dumb anything down” but it also simultaneously won’t make the audience “feel dumb” if they don’t understand a particular reference.

In closing Kaivu said to Sydneysiders, “If you simply want to come out for a night at the theatre you will get that here. But, if you want to have a night of deep discussion then this show will be very scintillating.”

Mar 29-Apr 17. Darlinghurst Theatre, Eternity Playhouse, 39 Burton St, Darlinghurst. $58-$68+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.darlinghursttheatre.com/staywoke