Fed: Weaver lonely in one-woman show

AAP General News (Australia)
02-11-2004
Fed: Weaver lonely in one-woman show

By Jonathon Moran and Carly Moore

SYDNEY, Feb 11 AAP - Playing seven characters in one performance would be gruelling
for any actor but for seasoned performer Jacki Weaver it is the loneliness that gets to
her.

Weaver's one-woman show The Blonde, The Brunette and The Vengeful Redhead opens later
this month and it definitely showcases the actor's strength as a performer.

"It is a bit lonely being no other actors (on the stage)," Weaver said.

"I love other actors. It is just the company. It is a bit easier performing with someone
to bounce off."

The one-woman production by playwright Robert Hewett centres around naive housewife
Rhonda Russell whose world is turned upside-down after a disastrous yet hilarious sequence
of events.

Pushed into confronting the other woman by her meddling friend, Rhonda ends up imprisoned
after a regrettable accident resulting in the death of the wrong man.

"It is a fantastic story," she said.

"That is one of the top criteria for me. It is a great yarn and an audience pleaser," she said.

Weaver plays seven characters in the play, five women, a four-year-old boy and a man.

"It is as much a stamina thing as anything I suppose," she said.

"I have played men before and I have played children a lot but it is interesting having
to do them all on the one night."

Weaver has spent much of the past few years on the road touring, performing in 36 venues
last year and 69 venues in nine months the previous year.

"It means that you stay in nearly 100 hotels in a year and it really gives you a good
perspective on the whole country," she said.

"It is tough, really tough but it is a great way to see the country and I saw places
that even at my great age I had never seen before."

Commenting more generally on Australian theatre, Weaver said there was "less work for
actors now than there has ever been".

"It is the worst time ever. The (government) subsidies now are less than they have
ever been," she said.

"That is a disgrace in a country as wealthy as this."

During the 1970s Weaver appeared in many of Australia's most iconic films including
Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Removalists. She also won an AFI award for both Caddie
and Stork.

More recently, Weaver has kept to the stage with roles in box office hits such as Born
Yesterday, The Real Thing and Shadowlands as well as David Williamson's Emerald City,
After The Ball and Soulmates.

The Blonde, The Brunette and The Vengeful Redhead plays at Sydney's Stables Theatre
in Kings Cross from February 24 to March 13.

The production then moves to Parramatta's Riverside Theatre from March 29 to April 3.

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