Kelly

Your beloved brother has betrayed you and you’ve spent the past five months sitting in jail, your body filled with bullets wasting away from lead poisoning. It’s a take on Ned Kelly that we often don’t see, but one that the Queensland Theatre Company team are delivering.
“It’s the greatest play I’ve even been involved in and I can’t wait to take it to 39 venues. It’s the most excited I’ve ever been about being an actor to be honest,” Steven Rooke who plays Ned Kelly says.
Following on from a stellar premiere season in 2012, playwright Matthew Ryan has made a few changes this time around.
“The flow of it has been improved and it was difficult to make those changes initially because it was so much in my body from last time, but now that they’re there it just makes perfect sense why he’s made those changes,” he says.
“It’s a different interpretation of the characters this time around too, so it’s not the same Ned that I did in 2012. His brain and his emotions are stretched just a little bit further and worn a little bit thinner I think.”
“It’s more fun, because I think I played him a bit one-coloured in 2012 and he was just angry all the time. Now I get to play with a lot more light and shade and there’s a lot more humour in it but he’s also a bit more emotional and he doesn’t hold himself together quite as well as he did last time.”
For us as audience members the depth given to each character is an entertaining watch, but actually being able to deliver those emotions is a whole other challenge for the actors. You can’t help but wonder, just how do the actors prepare for such a role as this?
“Kevin [Spink], who plays Dan Kelly, and I were speaking about it last night saying that this is just the greatest treat for an actor to do because you go to the gym you train and you get stronger – this is like going to the actors gym,” he says.
“You’re going through everything and the full range of emotions each time you do the show – it’s really just a gift. The only way to prepare for it is to look the other actor in the eyes and go, ‘Let’s go for it, let’s do it and not leave anything in the tank’.”
Thanks to brilliant casting for the crew, something that Steven describes as the perfect fit, Ned Kelly’s story is told in a new light, and helps raise the biggest question of all in the Ned Kelly debate.
“The question this play asks is, ‘Was he really a good guy or a bad guy?’ Nobody has really been able to answer that and I’m sure people have had their opinions but it’s much more complicated than that – it’s not a simple black and white answer,” Steven says.
While there are an abundance of shows to attend – this just so happens to be the largest tour QTC has ever done – there will also be a “Facebook onslaught” to accompany it. Whether you attend a show or not it is definitely worth checking out their Facebook page (facebook.com/pages/Kelly-National-Tour) to see just what Steven is talking about.
When & Where: Lighthouse Theatre, Warrnambool – April 10, Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat – April 13, GPAC, Geelong – April 15-18, The Capital, Bendigo – April 24 & Frankston Arts Centre, Frankston – May 16
Written by Amanda Sherring