Peter and the Starcatcher is completing the final leg of its national tour in Brisbane, home to one of the show’s producers, Dead Puppet Society. The Scoop sat down with Otis Dhanji who plays the roles of Boy/Peter, ahead of the season which starts 14 March. Otis talks all things Starcatcher and the joys of stage acting. Read the full interview below.
I haven’t seen the show yet, and I wondered if you could tell me a bit about it? It’s been described as more of a play with songs than a traditional musical. It’s also been described as having a panto element and serving as a Peter Pan origin story, but I’m keen to hear your take.
There is actually a strict set of criteria to qualify as a musical, and our production doesn’t qualify. We miss one of the key criteria, which is the number of songs you need to have. We’re three songs short. So, it is technically a play with songs rather than a musical. And I would also say you need way more dancing to be a musical. We have, like, no dancing in it.
In terms of setting up Peter Pan as we know it, the play goes through a massive acceleration in putting everything into place right at the end of the show, which is, incidentally, where it becomes quite pantomime. That’s because there’s a lot of comedy in seeing all the characters take their starting positions for the story of Peter Pan.
I think one thing that shocks a lot of people is that the vast majority of the play is only loosely connected to Peter Pan. If you didn’t know it was an origin story, you wouldn’t necessarily figure it out until the very end.
Colin Lane and Peter Helliar, who become Captain Hook and Smee, kind of take the reins for the pantomime component. I would say the play as a whole has two big parts: pantomime and the emotional component. And they’re always rubbing up against each other. I fall into the serious camp. So it’s my job to play off them effectively enough to bring audiences back from the pantomime and into a real story. Hopefully, we can move them from laughter to really feeling something and being quite touched by the story.
Let’s talk about the puppets and how they’ve been incorporated into the show. Do you operate any of the puppets, or are they interacting with you? Without giving any spoilers away of course.
More often than not, I interact with the puppets, who are mostly animal characters. A big one is this yellow bird, the cockatoo, just to make it especially Australian.
I have one moment as a pilot of a puppet. I’m a single tentacle of a kraken, and I love it. Mostly because the four tentacles are framing Paul Capsis in probably one of my favourite moments in the show. He’s doing this great monologue where his character is dying. So I’ve got this fantastic front-row seat to that.
All of the puppets are operated by the actors in the same way that all the sets are moved by us. This is a cool thing because it creates a whirlwind quality, which could be quite startling for people when they see that it’s really only an ensemble of twelve putting it all together. But it creates a real rush for us in the performance.
You often think about theatre as waiting backstage for your moment to go on. But everyone is pretty much always on stage, and there’s almost zero waiting time. Which is great for someone like me who gets nervous. There’s just no time to get nervous. It’s been really cool to be a part of the crew as much as a part of the cast. And it has given me this appreciation for stage acting and how it can be a real physical labour.
That’s a great lead in to my next question. What are the biggest differences you’ve noticed between performing on stage versus performing on screen?
When we did the show in Sydney, I had a lot of family and friends coming every day. And it was really nice to be able to talk with them afterwards. I realised that it had been just as real for them as it had been for me. And that was so special. This is opposed to them watching something I did on screen that perhaps was filmed two years ago. Where I might be a bit more distanced from it now and don’t really relate to that version of myself anymore. So that’s definitely an advantage of theatre in my mind.
This question is from my Sydney reviewer, who saw the show over there. He wanted to ask about the scene where Peter jumps into the arms of the other actors, the moment where you are free falling, and actually in flight.
Absolutely, yeah. There’s a fall moment, which I first learned about when I read the script. So I knew it was coming, but I wasn’t sure how it was going to work. The rehearsal for it, I remember we built up, by degrees, to the ladder. So I did it off a little step ladder at first and then got up on one of the pianos and did it off that.
And eventually, I worked my way up to doing it off the ladder, which is what you see in the show. And to be honest, I wasn’t so scared about it. I would have been scared if I was one of people below doing the catching. But I wouldn’t say it’s a crazy risk or anything. We’ve done it so many times, it’s so tight. I have one of my cast members, Morgan, he’ll check with everyone down there. Then he’ll give me a special nod, and then we’ll go.
What advice would you give to anyone who wants to get into this industry?
If you say you like acting, maybe that’s referring to the times when you have jobs. But to really love acting is to love the process of doing the job and then going on a big period of waiting for the next one. And your greatest power in that is to fill in the waiting periods with something else. You need to find something else you enjoy. Otherwise, you’re just going to measure how well your life is going based on whether you’re acting or not. And that’s not a good thing because it’s really hard to get acting work.
You’re going to have to get good at waiting, and see that waiting is a part of acting. Even when you get onto set, you have to do a lot of waiting. Sometimes, I think of myself as a professional waiter, not a professional actor. And rather than just waiting idly, I wait by occupying myself with other things, like a getting a Uni degree or playing in my band. Something else that really interests me and is important to me.
Peter and the Starcatcher opens 14 March and runs until 6 April at The Playhouse QPAC.
Tickets: https://qpac.n.qtix.com.au/tickets/series/dpspeterstarcatcher25
Website: https://peterandthestarcatcher.com.au/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/peterandthestarcatchertour/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/deadpuppetsociety/
Photo credits: Daniel Boud
