How 'Sex With Strangers' Is Defying Its Use-By Date

It began with legendary American acting coach Larry Moss. Brisbane’s Thomas Larkin and Jennifer Flowers had worked together in 2012 on Queensland Theatre Company’s Romeo And Juliet, but it wasn’t until a workshop in Melbourne, where the tutor came to work with a select group of elite performers, where they forged a real bond, Larkin says. “It wasn’t until we were thrust together in this intimate long weekend acting class with Larry Moss that he impressed upon us the importance of ‘Why wait for the phone call? Why not go out there and put great work on, even if it’s a hole in the wall?’”

Inspiration struck, and the pair decided to do just that. Over many meetings, they put together a list of six-to-ten two-hander plays and discussed humble ideas of where they could put it on, such as a room over a pub. But Larkin had the idea of putting out feelers to Brisbane Powerhouse, and they not only provided a venue and a co-producer but also helped settle on the final text: US playwright Laura Eason’s Sex With Strangers.

Flowers would direct, Larkin would star as 20-something libertine blogger Ethan, and Veronica Neave would come aboard as gifted but shy novelist Olivia. This mismatched pair are thrown together at a snowbound writers’ retreat in Michigan, where they find they share an attraction, despite their many differences.

“It’s a cross-generational love story between an older woman and a younger guy,” Larkin says. “They both share a similar passion but they’re writing from two very different places. So there’s this fatal attraction, and a whole bunch of tension.”

Larkin says he very much enjoyed playing the dual roles of actor and producer for the first time – “the affectionate term people are using is slashie. Actor-slash-producer,” he laughs – and has a newfound respect for the ‘biz’ side of showbiz.

The show debuted to wild critical acclaim last July, and has just been nominated for three Matilda Awards – and now, just six months after it closed, Larkin and his team are putting on a second season. Larkin says his team has contacted Eason, who constantly updates the language of the play to keep it fresh.

“She’s been rewriting bits of it, no huge changes but just to keep the play ever-current,” he says. “Really the third character in the play is technology, is the internet, and the role it plays in our lives and our relationships. As you can imagine with it changing so fast these days, and with the play being written in 2007, technology has evolved a lot on the last seven or eight years. Eason is honest about it – she knows this play has a certain use-by date. But it is a cracking play and she rewrites it to give it a voice as long as possible. And for us, when you comb back over a text, it’s really surprising what new resonances present themselves. Ultimately it’s the same play – but there might be little bits and pieces that might not have popped last time.”