Profile

Answered by: Thom Jordan

Briefly describe your show. We Are ALL: a provocative new dark comedy that explores blind faith, self-doubt and what it takes to prove you truly believe. Paul is given no hope of surviving past his eighth birthday, after being diagnosed with leukemia. Miraculously, he lives. His strong belief is that he was kept alive to achieve great things, alter the course of history and be the voice of the Almighty – but at what cost?

What was the inspiration behind your show? Growing up as a minister’s son and living on the church property I was trapped within the bubble of faith. I was deep within the world of the church. Ironically this is where I first honed my acting and writing skills. A strong belief that I would change the world with drama. When I moved to Sydney I had a fall-out with the church. The people I had grown up with, my family, had disowned me in a flash. A sliver of doubt and I was excluded. I then attended a large Sydney church, surrounded by 3,000 young people; I’d never felt so alone. It was the beginning of my new life. At the same time a significant member of the Pentecostal church had been on stage with life support, dying of cancer and still was able to sing of ‘God’s’ healing power. After three years of leukemia, a song that reached #2 on the ARIA charts and gained a huge following, he came out and revealed that he never had cancer. It was all fake. How did he get up every day and preach, live out God’s will, under a lie? Was he doing God’s work? Does it matter what the truth is?

Briefly describe the development process of your show? Tell us a bit about your creative team, too. It’s been extremely difficult writing this story. It has been a story I’ve been trying to write in so many different forms, from a TV show to a documentary, but it has found a place as a one-man show. For about a year I sat with it and tried and figure out how to write what I’ve been waiting my whole life to say. It wasn’t until we got a residency at the Rock Surfers Summer Camp in Bondi that we had a whole week intensive and I wrote the whole show in four days. It’s seen some re-writes since but the first draft felt like it bled out of me. By the Friday we had the first 30 minutes up. I have written and perform this piece and Julia Patey came on as my director and co-developer. Together we have spent time sitting around yelling about how to actually make this a show. We attended many church services. Often with alcohol as courage and eventually we found the show we wanted to make.

What makes a good Fringe show? What do you personally look for from the perspective of an audience member? What I look for in a Fringe show is someone willing to be honest. Fringe shows don’t have to be big commercial success to be a hit. That’s what is great. You can take risks and explore subjects that you wouldn’t usually see in mainstream theatre.

And for a fun random one, in a fantasy world who would you be the love child of? The Virgin Mary and Christopher Hitchens.