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Feature by May Taylor
DIRECTOR, Mathew Lutton, is quickly securing himself a reputation
for excellence within the Perth theatre community.
With three professional productions (including the recent Perth
premiere of Bed) and numerous rave reviews under his belt,
Lutton has projects banked up for the next two years, after he
finishes his final year of study in the Theatre Arts course, at
the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
Cannibalism and tigers, oh my!
It is at the Academy that he is directing his next project, a
double billing of Polish writer Mrozek's plays Out at Sea
and The Martyrdom of Peter O'Hey.
Both of these plays are political satires with their message
hidden behind the ridiculous predicaments of the characters involved.
"Out at Sea looks at three castaways on a raft in
the middle of the ocean, and it is quickly determined that they
have to eat one of them," Lutton explains. "So, basically,
there is a conversation about who's going to be cannibalised.
"The Martyrdom of Peter O'Hey looks at a family being
confronted by the knowledge that there is a tiger in their bathroom."
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Something different
Lutton insists on creating a challenge for himself in each new
project.
Hence, in this next project, he aims to find a way to combine
imagery with the script to create magic.
Inspired by directors like Robert Lepage, and theatre companies
such as Complicite' and The Wooster group, Lutton wants to bring
something similar to the Perth community.
"I think Perth is a place that has the realm to grow,"
he explained. "It hasn't explored many things. Nearly everything
is text-based and Perth has come to believe that is what theatre
is, and when you do anything different, they think it's experimental,
and it's not.
"A lot of my inspiration comes from what people aren't doing
around Perth, there is so little experimenting happening and that
depresses me."
Lutton has worked with actors from various training backgrounds,
but has developed a preference for openness, physically, and open-mindedness,
mentally, from actors. He shares his excitement at working with
his fellow peers in his next project at WAAPA.
"They are the most creative people," he adds, "and
I really want to work with these people when I graduate!"
Something more
Lutton went on to express his concern that theatre in Australia
is not developing and diversifying itself.
He believes that in the modern world, we need something more
than a theatre that simply reflects society as it is in a purely
naturalistic way.
"A lot of our work has lost a sense of spirituality and
beauty," he observes. "A piece can be dark, but there
must be something more in it.
"We live in a community that's starved of spirituality.
Religion is gone. We need something that is beyond, something
magical, something profound."
l Lutton's double bill production
of The Martyrdom of Perter O'Hey and Out At Sea
is showing in the Enright Studio, at WAAPA, for an excusive run
of three nights, on May 8, 9 and 10
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