HOLLYWOOD scriptwriting guru Robert McKee’s famous book Story is rubbish.
Well, that’s what we’re told by a character in Greg McGee’s brand new play Me and Robert McKee.
Conrad Newport is directing the play, in which the
audience act as writing students in a lecture.
“The lecturer is a writer who thinks he knows better than McKee, the irony being that he’s such a mess he can’t write himself,” says Newport.
“Billy Dolan” is one of two characters in the play, the other is a banker – and the two are lifelong friends.
“The friends decide they’ll write a script, but it’s modelled on their friendship and they start to get confused about what’s real and what’s not,” he says.
It’s a play written about a writer who’s trying to write, but more than that, it’s a play about being an artist, and “more generically about the creative process. Greg McGee is a
well-known writer in NZ, so it’s a tricky balance for him to make fun of the writing profession while talking about the process of writing. He manages to laugh at himself,” says Newport.
The playwright isn’t laughing now though.
“As much as you’re excited about a new play, there’s also a terror about how it’ll go down. I’ve gone big opening new plays really unsuccessfully, and I’m more than happy to be opening on a smaller scale in Circa, and building from there,” says McGee.
If it’s a play about writing, is Billy Dolan based on McGee himself?
“Some of his wisdom is certainly hard earned by me, but he’s not me. When you see him you’ll
understand, most writers are carrying wounds but not
bleeding all over the place,” laughs McGee.
McGee, perhaps most famous for his landmark New
Zealand play Foreskin’s Lament, thinks aspiring writers will
enjoy the play, “as much for what not to do as for what to do”, although he adds that it’s “certainly not just for writers, it’s very entertaining.”
While he obviously enjoys writing (for the theatre at least), McGee, like his character Billy, subscribes to the belief, “why would you be a writer if you can be something else?”
“Honestly,” he laughs. “Why would you wish that on
anyone? It’s quite a psychologically wearing way to live. If you need to write for your own psychological wellbeing, you’ll end up writing. If you just want to write you won’t
succeed. I know if I could sing or paint or play an instrument I’d rather do that.”
Me and Robert McKee, Circa Theatre, November 5 -
December 4.