Local actor Leon Cain of 'I Love You Bro' acclaim, plays Liam - a street smart rat who hides himself under a layer of lies and manipulative love. “In the first couple of lines, my character Liam, is just playing it cool. The blood isn’t even really mentioned until the second or third page. Then I start to tell the story about how I was trying to help this guy who was being attacked… but that’s not the truth. Then the play goes on and there are little holes in my story about what has happened.”

The play is a multi-award winning psychological thriller that tests the boundaries of familial love and the limits of protection. Brother and sister Liam and Helen (played by Helen Cassidy), are orphans whose parents died in a tragic accident. So they share a bond that is hard to break, or even to understand especially to Helen's husband Danny (Christopher Sommers). Cain muses, “It’s quite a horrible play, pretty dark really. We were talking about what we could do on opening night for the after party and I suggested a stand-up comedian in the foyer, something funny and light because you’re going to walking out of this one feeling pretty sad and sorry.”

Director Kat Henry agrees that the play does grapple with heavy issues that are constantly recurring in our society at the moment, namely cycles of abuse and violence. But rather than throw it in your face, the play relies on insidious undertones and subtle references. In many ways, this creates more of an impact, leaving the audience unsettled and wary. Plus Leon mentions, “there is still the question of ‘what would you do?’ if faced with the same situation. Because a strong theme is loyalty and sibling love and this is do to with the fact that the two main leads (myself and Helen) are orphans and have been orphans since they were 8 and 10.  Due to the nature of their parents’ death, we get to witness how much of a bond they have psychologically and what they would go through for each other and how much they would do to protect each other.”

He points out the play makes us ask ourselves some hard questions. “If one of our siblings did something horrible, would we call the police? Would we disown them? Would we side with them and help them cover up this awful thing?” But for someone looking on from outside of this suffocating bond, it can be baffling and heartbreaking. “Chris Summers character is like the audience’s perspective for much of the play because not part of the orphan bond. He’s often confused by what is going on and what they’re thinking. But then he gets involved too.”

As an audience member, it often becomes about spotting the twist in the story and waiting for the final dramatic showdown but Leon thinks ‘Orphans’ takes a different approach. “For the audience, it is written so well. I hate to say it as it’s so clichéd, but it really is edge-of-your-seat theatre. It rockets along and when you think you have a break, the next line is another next level up. It doesn’t stop… ever. It starts off in your face and it doesn’t stop, it just keeps raising the stakes.
“I love the first read of a script that really works. You don’t have to try, it just jumps off the page. I remember thinking when I first read this role that it would be a challenging one and it really is.”

Discussing his preparation, Leon paints a bleak picture. “This character is macho, dangerous, a brute. You don’t ever really know where he’s at, he’s got a short fuse and within seconds he could be beating you to a pulp. So I was thinking, should I be a much bigger guy for this role? But bullies and thugs are not necessarily massive; they’ve just got this rawness, this inner anger and no fear. It’s not even how hard is their punch but that they have this scary primal anger and their arms aren’t gonna stop moving, their fists are just gonna keep coming. In terms of size, it doesn’t really matter. You just need to look into their eyes and you know to cross the street, you’re shit scared. That’s what this character is like.”

Queensland Theatre Company presents ‘Orphans’ which opens on June 23 at the Bille Brown Studio.

WIN!
QTC have three doubles to giveaway to the first performance on June 23. To win, email your name and contact number to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." ' + path + '\'' + prefix + ':' + addy55124 + '\'>'+addy_text55124+'<\/a>'; //--> with ‘Orphans’ in the subject header.