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Suzy Izzard is a woman for all seasons – and all roles, it seems. This month, the British actor and comedian – still happy to be known as Eddie in a professional context – is touring Australia in The Remix, reimagining highlights from her 35 years in comedy. Then in June, she returns with her unique take on Hamlet, adapted by her brother Mark, in which she plays all 26 characters in Shakespeare’s great tale of grief, revenge and vulnerability.
“We did a Q and A after a very early show in New York and one person said, ‘I see Ophelia as a twin soul of Hamlet.’ We liked and ran with that,” says Izzard via video conference.
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Growing up in Sydney, Eric Avery – a violinist, composer, vocalist and dancer of the Ngiyampaa, Yuin, Bundjalung and Gumbaynggirr people of New South Wales – began playing a toy violin at age 12. His mother bought it for him after he was captivated by Wes Craven’s film Music of the Heart, starring Meryl Streep as American violinist Roberta Guaspari, who fought for music education in public schools.
He soon learned to play Beethoven’s Ode to Joy on the toy instrument, so his parents purchased an adult violin and then sent him to lessons a year later.
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In a room furnished in stereotypically feminine colours – pink, mainly – two 17-year-old working-class long-time besties are in a state of semi-delusion. The theatre audience becomes part of their dissociative game-playing. “Thoughts?” asks Isla (Afro–Caribbean–Australian actor and playwright Iolanthe), as she points out the benefits of their glamorous classroom to theatregoers.
On the fourth floor of an otherwise scruffy South London secondary school, it’s far away from the staffroom, and the broken smoke detectors can’t alert teachers to their cigarettes and weed.
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