What is it like to direct seven strong women? Come to see the show and find out!
When I first read Little Wars I loved the dialogue – the banter and bickering. It felt so sharp and so real; competing egos in a harsh world. As I delve more and more into these characters, I realise how they, like women through the centuries, must deal with their different roles in society. Yes, first and foremost they are women – seven women with different stories to tell, and each has found a way to deal with tough experiences. Yet they are more, and 6 of the 7 share a cultural history. As director of this play, I need to find a way to bring modern actresses together to reveal this history; to get them to see that rivalry and competition is not the only way forward.
Each of the characters has a wonderful sense of humour – some sharp and acerbic, some teasing, some dry and witty. More and more during rehearsal I realise there is a lightness of touch in the writing, not just the cutting squabbling that reaches out on first reading. There is also love, and warmth, and caring. This play runs the gamut of emotions. Six of the characters were real people but the play creates a fiction around them so that they are not the people we think we know. Putting fact and fiction together in this way can be tough and may at times differ from audience’s expectations, but it is extremely satisfying to watch actors discover these people for themselves.
Directing 7 strong women - it’s never going to be easy. But it’s been wonderful to watch the characters come to life – Alice in all her seeming appeasement has a bit of fire; the fun-loving Dorothy has a sadness about her; Mary has seen too much horror. I see a little of myself in each of them. I would love to be as self-assured as Gertrude, as determined as Lillian, as confident as Agatha, as self-contained as Bernadette. Rehearsing with these women has shown me they can do anything they choose, be anything they choose. These people are real. That is what matters.
Tricia Peroni, Director
Little Wars
by Steven Carl McCasland
Tuesday 26 - Saturday 30 September 2023
Get your tickets here.