With the 2008 Global Financial Crisis being squarely blamed on banks, international markets and corporate CEOs with their fat bonuses, the public image of business executives has never been at such an all time low.
But this is what I’ve been trained to do when I was at the VCA, and I’ve realised I should really been doing more of this kind of work, rather than the easy stuff like stand up.
Movies like Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and TV shows Undercover Boss could be seen as a possible reaction to this attitude.
Comedian and actor, George Kapiniaris is tackling this issue right now in his latest role, as the beleaguered executive in the play, The Give and Take by
Tony McNamara.
“The script was originally written for Gary McDonald for the Melbourne Theatre Company and then went onto Sydney,” said Kapiniaris “and now I have been handed the big task to play the same role for the South Australian State Theatre Company.”
The Give and Take centres around a dynamic executive, Don who realises that despite his success and his impressive earning power his family life is in fact a complete mess.
Don returns home to his wife telling him she’s leaving to have tantric sex in Tuscany. His children aren’t surprised and really don’t care because they’re only really interested in his money.
His son Neil is a leftist layabout; his daughter, Julie is a corporate cowgirl, and his other son, Damien is a steroid-stuffed gym-bunny.
The plot trajectory is there’s no reason why his family’s cushy lifestyle shouldn’t continue into the foreseeable future as long as Don doesn’t do anything crazy.
Which he presumably does and to great comedic effect.
It’s no wonder McDonald was originally handed this role and it’s just as plain why a great and madcap talent like Kapiniaris has been handed this comedic baton.
“But this is really a big ask for me,” said Kapiniaris, “because for the past 25 years, I’ve mostly been doing stand up, except for my recent role in 12 Angry Men.”
Stand up and straight theatre acting are different gigs, admitted Kapiniaris.
“But this is what I’ve been trained to do when I was at the VCA, and I’ve realised I should really been doing more of this kind of work, rather than the easy stuff like stand up.
“There are seventy pages of dialogue in this script. All I do is rehearse all the day and then go home and learn off more lines.”
The character he plays has his own revelation: that there’s more to life than throwing money at your family to solve life’s problems.
“You see he doesn’t really care for them, when really he should.”
Kapiniaris himself has recently become a father and added, “with my two year old son I know I have to put in the hours for him to get something real out of me and me out of him.
“All these executives put in really long hours, they come home and the kids are asleep. Then they grow up and leave and they’ve got nothing out of each other.”
It’s clear that The Give And Take has many hilarious moments and its social message is very much in the title.
“All the characters are crazy and really funny,” said Kapiniaris.
“But in the end they’re all very selfish people who come from a world that knows how to take, yet doesn’t know how to give back.”
The Give and Take is on at the State Theatre Co South Australia October 29 – November 21
www.statetheatre.com.au