Cool, calm and collected

By Kirra Livingstone

AWARD-winning actor, Jane Phegan, says she was blown away when she first read the thought-provoking, but ultimately optimistic and heartening climate-focused play, The End of Winter.

 Jane will be performing the play – described as “a theatrical experience of bone-warming depth and of hope” – at the Maleny Community Centre on September 10 at 2pm.

The play, written by Noëlle Janaczewska, is a commentary on climate change and was written in the aftermath of the 2019 Black Summer bushfires, the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 floods.

Coming a week after the Bureau of Meteorology announced Queensland’a 2023 winter was its warmest in 110 years only adds to the relevancy of the subject matter.

Jane’s character is an avid winter lover in a world where the season has faded away and plot follows her search to reclaim the season.

Jane said while the topic could seem too big an issue to scale on stage, the play was able to distil big themes with poetic harmony.

 “We can certainly find it too big of an issue to face but I think there are so many severe weather events now that are so much harsher and more frequent that it’s pretty hard for you to bury your head in the sand anymore,” she said.

“In this piece, Noëlle beautifully instils in a simple question about what it means personally, and delights by taking us on adventures to cold places where we remember the joy of winter.

“Even if you’re not a winter lover, there’s a wonderful balance in the different seasons. You need that cold season to enjoy the warm one.”

Jane said acting as a solo performer created its own complications, but she enjoyed the challenge.

“It’s a big challenge, it always takes a big flex of the muscles and is a lot of responsibility. I’ve found myself in a lot of solo plays, but I do find it a huge challenge, it’s a really interesting way of doing theatre,” she said.

“I think it’s just that thing of holding the whole piece in your mind, you’re still having a dialogue, there’s a lot of shared responsibility in taking the story where it needs to go and even just in terms of if you were to jump forward, which we try not to do, but if you’re in your mind and thinking what comes next.

“I really enjoy it but you know it’s terrifying to go on with other people, so it’s terrifying going up there by yourself.”

She also said revealed how she kept audiences engaged.

“I think the trick is to not worry about that too much, in this specific performance I am interacting with the crowd so in a sense I am checking if the audience is with me, but I try not to read into it too much,” she said.

“Sometimes it’s really interesting watching how certain audiences react to the piece, some are very loud and reactive, but others can be really quiet and you can’t tell if they are bored or very interested, so I try not to go off people reactions throughout the play and stay focused on what I have to do up there.”

Jane said she was thrilled to have won best performer in a leading role at the Sydney Theatre Awards for her role in The End of Winter. “It was a big surprise to win, it was really lovely and was really nice to be recognised by the people who have seen the show,” she said.

“One of the nicest things was my peers coming up to afterwards congratulating me and saying how stoked they were that I had won which was very lovely I felt very grateful for that.

“Obviously it was lovely to get that recognition so that was a special night, I was wearing jeans and I luckily changed out of my thongs, that’s how sure I was that I wasn’t going to win.”

The actress also had a small role in the popular reboot of Heartbreak High last year, in which she played a doctor in the first episode of the series.

“If you blinked you would have missed me, I had a very tiny role playing a doctor and that was a lot of fun too,” she said.

The End of Winter
Sunday, Sept 10 @ 2pm
Maleny Community Centre
Tix: $40. malenyartscouncil.com