“I originally auditioned for one of the bad guys but they said I’d make a good cop,” says Greek Australian director, actor, producer and writer Ange Arabatzis with a laugh. Ange is talking about an audition he had for the television series that is currently airing on Channel 9; Fat Tony & Co, the story of Tony Mokbel.
“I had to be clean shaven every day, in a ’90s suit with a part in the middle of my hair – things you do for art, hey?” he says.
Ange is back in his hometown of Melbourne following a four-month stint in New York where he locked himself away to write.
“I got into the groove pretty much immediately,” says Ange of his time in the US. He wrote a full length play in about two weeks, and a screenplay and some shorts. The screenplay was a reworking of a more complicated idea he had about a year ago, and it was a new draft of that.
“We organised a reading for my play in a little gallery with a few other actors, and it was the first time I heard my words, which was incredible.”
The change of environment was incredibly conducive for the artist, who says having a distance from somewhere you’ve spent your formative years can allow you to see things in a different light.
“It enables your imagination to start ticking over,” he explains, “you can start writing about stuff that was probably born from an autobiographical place, but the change of environment enables you to start being more creative.”
But even though he was on the other side of the world, his screenplay was very close to here. He was writing about East Brunswick, Yarraville, inner-city Melbourne – his stomping ground. And he’s adamant about producing the film in Melbourne and not changing a thing to appease an international audience. The screenplay was submitted and accepted into a Theatre Festival in New York, so the second the play Danny and the Deep Blue Sea – the reason he’s in Australia at the moment – wraps, he’s off back to New York to start pre-production and casting with the plan of shooting in Melbourne.
“I am really passionate about putting this world up on the screen,” says the bona fide Melburnian.
“I’ve been asked if I’d like to keep it that way or think about changing the language so it’s a bit more of an international flavour but I’m not really a big fan of that. I think the work we’ve come to appreciate over the years from artists from different parts of the world has been work that they have written from their point of view, so I don’t see why this should be any different.” He says he’s up for the challenge to keep this distinctly Australian.
For now, Ange is taking time out from rehearsals for the play Danny and the Deep Blue Sea – the first play by Oscar-winner John Patrick Shanley. Whilst working on the David Mamet production of Oleanna, Ange met Tanya Walker – his acting partner and also producer on this play. The two struck up a conversation and decided to work together in March 2014. Tanya sent Ange two scripts but it was Danny and the Deep Blue Sea that resonated with him.
“On the page, Danny seems like a really violent man, who has a lot of rage in him and I can identify with the rage, but I also found it – and still find it a challenge – to find the other dimensions to make him more three dimensional, like his humour and vulnerability, and to allow them to come out on stage.”
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea will be held at the Owl and the Pussycat Theatre, 34 Swan Street, Richmond from March 5 to March 15. For tickets and more information visit www.owlandcat.com.au/ or www.subtexttheatre.com.au