Tom Holloway’s deceptively simple family drama Red Sky Morning captured my imagination unlike any play I’d read in ages. One of the most frequently produced playwrights in Australia today, I find Holloway’s work tends towards the provocative, often poking into dark crevices of human nature. He recently workshopped a new play, Faces Look Ugly, at Playwriting Australia’s National Play Festival, and we found a quiet corner in the midst of the busy Malthouse Theatre lobby to talk about his work, influences and process.
“If we don’t get a true understanding of something that’s dark, perhaps we can’t help, or do our best to prevent it happening more. Theatre is a safe place for that, and that’s something that I think is important for us to do, generally.”
Will you tell me a bit about your origins as a playwright? Were you involved in theatre before you started writing, or were you a writer who got into theatre?
I was born and grew up in Hobart in Tasmania, and I did a lot of theatre all the way through school. I always loved it, loved the story telling and the pretending. (more…)
