Why Jasper Jones Has "Buttloads Of Heart"

Since its publication in 2009, Craig Silvey's Jasper Jones has garnered awards and has been heralded as Australia's To Kill A Mockingbird (mostly before the release of Go Set A Watchman). The book is set in a small West Australian town circa 1965 and fuelled on the surface by a mysterious crime and, just beneath, by race relations in the town. Notions of innocence and injustice are prominent themes in both the novel and Kate Mulvany's stage adaptation.

Innocence, in different ways, has been crucial to both Guy Simon and Nicholas Denton in preparing their characters. After Lasarus Ratuere had to pull out of Belvoir's Anne-Louise Sarks-directed production earlier this year, Simon was called up to fill in the title role of the book's protagonist Jasper Jones. Now, just a few months later under a different director, on a different stage, and surrounded by a different cast, he has tried not so much to forget what he learned as to remain open to the possibilities of the story and the character, to retain an innocence regarding Jasper's potential.

"When you're telling Indigenous stories, or stories with Indigenous characters, you have a job to do when you walk the boards."

"Something like The Boy From Oz or The Lion King, you may reprise a role but you don't have to switch it up as much, but doing a contemporary play, doing the same role, in the same year..."

"With two separate companies," Denton chimes in cheekily.

"It's an interesting experience," Simon concedes. "And a really good opportunity for me as an actor to stretch myself, to get to make new choices with a new set, a new cast, a new director. I've got to be more improvisationally available, drop those previous choices I made and just listen."

At 24, Denton is trying to retain the worldly innocence that any 14-year-old, no matter how well read, possesses. "He's a 14-year-old kid," Denton emphasises. "He's bookish, he's very introspective in his thinking. I didn't want to treat Charlie as an incredibly young person, because that's just me lying. I'm 24, I can play him as well as I can, so I tried to approach it realistically. Although books might give him maturity, he hasn't had these life experiences," says Denton, before delivering one of Charlie's lines: "​I'm a virgin to this kind of thing, I'm a virgin to pretty much every kind of thing, except books."

Jasper Jones marks the Melbourne Theatre Company debut for Simon and Denton and, with a film adaptation of the novel also in the works, both actors are feeling privileged to have a role in bringing this story to more audiences. "I think what makes the story resonate so much is heart," says Simon. "It's got — I shouldn't say it: it's got buttloads of heart," he completes the thought in earnest despite his own protestations.

Denton recalls some advice Indigenous activist Richard Frankland awarded them during a recent visit to rehearsals. "He said, 'When you're telling Indigenous stories, or stories with Indigenous characters, you have a job to do when you walk the boards.' And that's really true: it's our job to hold up a mirror and ask questions about how different we are."