What would Cathy do?
by Chris Arontsen
Starring Skye Wansey
by Chris Arontsen
Starring Skye Wansey
Who is Cathy?
A dishevelled woman of 50 bursts onto the stage and directs a torrent of abuse at a security guard who's just thrown her out of a supermarket for stealing. She looks and sounds like a middle-aged drug addict in the final stages of a slow decline. But then she turns to the audience and starts to explain: her name is Cathy, and she's neither a thief nor a junkie; she's actually an actress, deeply immersed in the character she is creating for an up coming feature film.
What follows is a bravura, 30 minute monologue about reality and delusions, in which we are never sure where the truth lies - Alan Bennet meets Sarah Kane on the inner-city streets of Kings Cross, Sydney.
“What Would Cathy do?” was inspired by a real life encounter between playwright Chris Aronsten and a woman he saw being thrown out of a supermarket. After ranting and raving at security staff, the woman turned to Chris and calmly explained that she had been cast as a junkie in a feature film, and what he had just witnessed was all part of her research.
What follows is a bravura, 30 minute monologue about reality and delusions, in which we are never sure where the truth lies - Alan Bennet meets Sarah Kane on the inner-city streets of Kings Cross, Sydney.
“What Would Cathy do?” was inspired by a real life encounter between playwright Chris Aronsten and a woman he saw being thrown out of a supermarket. After ranting and raving at security staff, the woman turned to Chris and calmly explained that she had been cast as a junkie in a feature film, and what he had just witnessed was all part of her research.
What the critics said
From the Sydney premiere in April, 2012
‘A warmly abrasive, deftly profane and strikingly truthful performance’ Sydney Morning Herald
‘The kind of performance that leaves indelible marks on one's psyche’ Crikey.com.au
From the One Festival, New York, April 28 th, 2017
"The ONE Festival showcases diverse and creative solo performances. By offering WHAT WOULD CATHY DO? the festival has more than fulfilled its mission: the show works from a superb script and incredibly kinetic and heartbreaking performance.
Is Cathy an actress using The Method to prepare for a film role as a junkie? Or, is she a junkie pretending to be an actress? You will find yourself contemplating this like a dog chasing its tale from the first moment she launches, foul-mouthed and combative onto the performance space. She mesmerizes the audience with a dizzying array of rants and chatter, all the time twitching and fidgeting, bouncing and occasionally drooping. Streetwise Cathy explains why junkies walk so fast, how they sniff out and fulfill their next hit, and in one painful and terribly sad instance, what kind of sexual humiliation they submit themselves to in order to feed the habit.
The script is very intricate in its detail about life as a junkie: Cathy shares that the hit of one drug feels as if someone is pouring warm honey over her head. Skye Wansey is absolutely possessed by her character and performs with both a matter-of-fact assurance and wistfulness. This is a performance you really have to see to believe; and, as long as you aren’t offended by liberal uses of the c- and f- words, you shouldn’t miss it.
WHAT WOULD CATHY DO? Maintains its integrity in the vein of GREY GARDENS and ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS: the worlds are bizzare, but the language and performance are painfully, touchingly real."
Leslia DiLeo, Hi! Drama
‘A warmly abrasive, deftly profane and strikingly truthful performance’ Sydney Morning Herald
‘The kind of performance that leaves indelible marks on one's psyche’ Crikey.com.au
From the One Festival, New York, April 28 th, 2017
"The ONE Festival showcases diverse and creative solo performances. By offering WHAT WOULD CATHY DO? the festival has more than fulfilled its mission: the show works from a superb script and incredibly kinetic and heartbreaking performance.
Is Cathy an actress using The Method to prepare for a film role as a junkie? Or, is she a junkie pretending to be an actress? You will find yourself contemplating this like a dog chasing its tale from the first moment she launches, foul-mouthed and combative onto the performance space. She mesmerizes the audience with a dizzying array of rants and chatter, all the time twitching and fidgeting, bouncing and occasionally drooping. Streetwise Cathy explains why junkies walk so fast, how they sniff out and fulfill their next hit, and in one painful and terribly sad instance, what kind of sexual humiliation they submit themselves to in order to feed the habit.
The script is very intricate in its detail about life as a junkie: Cathy shares that the hit of one drug feels as if someone is pouring warm honey over her head. Skye Wansey is absolutely possessed by her character and performs with both a matter-of-fact assurance and wistfulness. This is a performance you really have to see to believe; and, as long as you aren’t offended by liberal uses of the c- and f- words, you shouldn’t miss it.
WHAT WOULD CATHY DO? Maintains its integrity in the vein of GREY GARDENS and ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS: the worlds are bizzare, but the language and performance are painfully, touchingly real."
Leslia DiLeo, Hi! Drama
CHRIS ARONSTEN
Writer/Director/ProducerChris is a graduate of the AFTRS (BA, Screenwriting) and the NIDA playwriting studio. His short film, Call Waiting, won the Best Screenplay Award at the 1998 British Short Film Festival. His television credits include Going Home (SBS) David Tench Tonight (Ten) and Comedy Inc. – The Late Shift (Nine). Between 2005 and 2007 Chris wrote a satirical advice column for the Sydney Morning Herald. In 2005, he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to research writers' theatres in the UK, Ireland and the USA. Plays include Human Resources (Darlinghurst Theatre 2006), Malice Toward None (Old Fitzroy Theatre, 2012) and The Lunch Hour (Darlinghurst Theatre, 2012) In 2013, Chris was awarded Inscription's Edward Albee Playwriting Scholarship. In 2017, Chris will tour his monologue What would Cathy do? To three international festivals: The One Festival (New York), The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and United Solo (New York).
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SKYE WANSEY
"Cathy"Skye Wansey (Cathy) has played key supporting roles in many Australian films and miniseries including The Silence, Rake, Chopper, Blue Murder and Academy Award winning director Jane Campion's TV series Top of the Lake in the role of “Grishina” alongside Elizabeth Moss and Holly Hunter. Her stage work includes Fences for Urban Stage Projects. This year Skye also portrays “Cathy” at the One Festival and United Solo festivals in New York.
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