Cussing In The Bright Lights

When The Motherfucker With The Hat premiered on Broadway, friends of Perth-based director Adam Mitchell sent him the script, alongside their recommendations, praising Stephen Adly Guirgis' foul-mouthed and touching comedy, set in New York's Puerto Rican community.

Excited as he was to discover the script – Guirgis' The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot was one of Mitchell's favourite works growing up – there were a few things that made him question how plausible staging it would be. “I don't know what it was like seeing the word 'Motherfucker' on a Broadway marquee, but I'm sure that it was probably the first time that that had happened, and that's certainly a bit titillating as well,” Mitchell jokes. “It's exciting to see a tale like this on a Broadway theatre, or in a main stage State company, that's quite thrilling because certainly this kind of play doesn't usually get put in front of a mainstream audience. And the artistic director here at Black Swan was also kind of thinking about the play when I was sent it, but wondering whether or not she'd get away with it, basically. The state theatre companies can have somewhat more of a conservative kind of programming.”

Then there was the play's content: sordid and soaked in swears, it is populated with ex-cons, drug users and colourful characters – Mitchell uses the all-encompassing “deplorable”, said with an audible smile, to describe them – bound together by rugged relationships. Thus, “essentially these characters are fairly deplorable,” Mitchell admits, excited and unapologetic. “You are really watching people ground feed, but at the heart of it, it's basic human desire for connectivity with others, having meaningful connections. And what's so tragic about this – I mean, this play is absolutely a comedy, it's hilarious – but as the night goes on it becomes more and more tragic and you see our protagonist, Jackie, fighting harder and harder for these meaningful relationships.”

Further trepidation for Mitchell came about as result of casting requirements. He recalls the furore surrounding the play's second American production as one that almost caused him to reconsider. “It was the second production, opening in Connecticut, and a production didn't cast Puerto Rican actors, you know, they used a full white cast even though they were auditioning for actors in New York City, and, you know, the one place you can find New York Puerto Ricans is New York.” Similarly miffed, Guirgis took to his Facebook page with the following: In Hartford Connecticut, the mayor is Puerto Rican. But in TheaterWorks production of my play in Hartford – the 2 lead Puerto Rican characters are played by white actors.

“I looked around Perth and thought, 'Well, it's kind of difficult to cast Puerto Rican American,' so I went a bit cold on it,” Mitchell admitts. “But then we started looking at the play more carefully and looking at what Steven Guirgis, the playwright, had written and said about casting and thought – you know what, we can do this.”

The key, says Mitchell, was to simply allow the actors to honour the intent of the characters and of the play; Guirgis has written the Puerto Rican flavour into the script for them to make larger than life. “Our casting is kinda the way Guirgis intended,” reasons Mitchell. “It's very mixed.”

And impressive to boot – the cast features Lebanese actor Faysall Bazzi, seen recently on stages for Belvoir and Griffin theatre; Philippino actor Rhoda Lopez, on debut for Black Swan; Italian actor and past collaborator with Mitchell, Austin Castiglione; African American actor Kenneth Ransom, and Alison van Reeken.