COFFS Harbour theatre director Beckley Vincent brings the iconic The Rocky Horror Show to the Jetty Memorial Theatre opening on Friday 9 January for a limited season.
Working with Bellingen and Coffs Harbour-based Tamba independent touring theatre company, Beckley secured the rights to stage Richard O’Brien’s original play, rather than a tribute or greatest hits show.
“We honestly didn’t think we’d get the rights, but producer Kaiyai Doenau and I applied anyway, we got them, and we’re doing it,” Beckley told News Of The Area.
Premiering in London in 1973 and running for 2,960 performances, The Rocky Horror Show now makes its way to Coffs Harbour.
The show is described as a fast-paced, high-energy tribute to the B-grade science fiction and horror films of the 1930s through to the early 1960s.
It later became a pop-culture phenomenon, spawning the 1975 film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, now regarded as one of the most recognisable cult classics.
Beckley expects audiences to have preconceived ideas of the show.
“Audiences will be coming along already knowing what they will be seeing, what to expect…wanting to see their beloved and much watched story just as they remember it.
“So, as a director who has mostly worked in Shakespeare, I am more used to a ‘blank canvas’ of a script, where I can do whatever I want with costume, sets and spectacle.”
Beckley has made Macbeth into a Quentin Tarantino-esque gangster, and staged Hamlet as a dark, gothic fantasy.
He has set a Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Australian bush and turned the Popular Mechanicals into a bunch of bogan tradies, complete with cans of VB.
“With Rocky, I’ve got to colour a bit more between the lines.
“So, I’ve chosen my own colour palette and shifted some of the lines just enough to keep the show completely recognisable, pay homage to its true spirit and yet add a bit of my own flair.
“I love madcap comedy and I love crazy business going on in the background; this show lends itself perfectly to these.”
A huge fan of using light, shadow and sound, Beckley is “playing with a whole bunch of new tech at the theatre”.
The show is a creative twist on Richard O’Brien’s play staying true to the original vision.
By Andrea FERRARI
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