Next week, Queensland Theatre opens David Williamson’s rom-com Rhinestone Rex and Miss Monica. The two-hander play stars Georgie Parker and Glenn Hazeldine who originated the roles together 15 years ago. After a reprisal in Sydney in 2023, they are back for a Brisbane premiere season.
Georgie Parker plays Monica, an embittered former classical violinist who loves Mahler more than life itself. Glenn Hazeldine plays a glib former country and western singer now spinning tracks as DJ Rhinestone Rex. A knockabout true blue tradie by day, Rex aka Gary has been hired to renovate Monica’s kitchen. The pair have nothing in common except that they’re both middle-aged and single. But as the arrows fly and the digs land, will this duo discover they’re accidentally harmonising on their own sweet duet?
The Scoop sat down for an extended chat with Georgie and Glenn ahead of the season. The pair talk all things Rhinestone Rex, including the ease they share working together, and why this season had to happen. Read the full interview below.
Third time’s the charm working together on this play! What’s been easier about revisiting a play you’ve done before and what are some of the new challenges?
Georgie: The only thing that’s easy is being familiar with it. But the more you do it the more you find. So it’s actually just this never-ending journey of discovering the potential of the play. That also speaks to the fact that it’s so well written. And the more we’ve played these characters and the older we’ve gotten, we’ve discovered other parts of the ageing process that bring more to the states of the characters. What they have to gain and what they have to lose by not endeavouring to follow their heart.
It’s also not the usual Williamson play. It’s not political, it’s this delightful romantic comedy that’s very combative with that Williamson tone. It’s hilarious, and the good thing is that it’s so familiar to the audience; the vernacular and the way we speak and the references we make. Audiences are a lot more in it than if it was an American play.
Glenn: Georgie and I have spent a lot of time with this play. And even yesterday we were questioning: Why are we doing this? Why does this happen this way? We’re still kind of opening it up. The first time we did the play it was 15 years ago. It was really interesting to come back to it two years ago for the remount being older and bringing a new part of our lives to the material. It really enhanced it, and this time it’s no different. We’re still finding things in it. It won’t be a carbon copy. We’re finding a freshness and that’s the genius of Williamson: there’s a lot to mine.
Georgie: Glenn is such a great actor and he just fully throws himself into it with such abandon. There’s something to be said for working with someone where I feel like anything could happen on stage and we would be okay. And that’s a rare space to be in with another actor. I can’t tell you how reassuring and exciting it is to know you can go on stage and just have two hours of fun.
Glenn: I’ve got to echo that. I wish every job was with Georgie because it’s just so fun. And it’s not complicated. We’re both open to the material and to the way each other works. We’re also both open to the emotions and the complexities of the piece. It’s not like work, this one.
Glenn, is it true that you’ve appeared in more David Williamson plays than any other actor?
Glenn: That is true, yeah. My very first job coming out of NIDA when I graduated in 1994 was a David Williamson play called Dead White Males. We actually brought it up to the Gold Coast and toured it nationally. And since then, I’ve had this freakish great fortune to have been really closely associated with Williamson and his plays. I think it would be a quarter of my professional working life I’ve done Williamson. About 16 or 17 different plays. This is the fourth time I’ve done Rhinestone Rex, the third time with my friend Georgie. But I’m really happy to have that little credit on my resume.
What do you think it is about Williamson that keeps drawing you to him?
Glenn: I love working on Australian plays. That’s been most of my work. I don’t like doing accents. I quite like our culture and I like exploring it, and Williamson has always had his finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist. It’s been a really fruitful exploration of the Australian psyche and the Australian character. And that’s entirely suitable for me given that he is the great Australian playwright and that’s where I’m most comfortable: developing new works and exploring our stories.
Do you both feel a bit more protective performing in a work where you originated the roles?
Georgie: I don’t feel protective of the work because the work is like titanium, it sort of stands on its own. We just get to immerse ourselves in it for two hours and discover what we can about it. I don’t feel any ownership over it. I would love to see someone else do this play, that would be really funny… I’m sure I’d have notes. (laughs)
Glenn: We’ve been really lucky with this play. Because we’ve done it for over 15 years of our lives, when we came back to it two years ago, David was really, really generously open to us bringing our advanced experience to the material. He gave us the freedom to create a version of the play that was specifically us. And that’s not common. He gave us the freedom to create a more poignant version that was connected to us.
Georgie: And with that freedom, we’ve found that it’s funnier and it’s more moving because you can just go further with every path the play takes. You can just explore it further.
Glenn: So it’s not a sense of ownership. We inhabit it in a way that’s personal. I’m proud of it, and I’ll never forget that Georgie and I created it together with David.
What have the characters of Gary and Monica taught you about yourselves as people and about the human condition in general?
Georgie: I’ll go first. (laughs) Monica first read on the page as being a certain kind of person. But that was just a few defence mechanisms. She is actually this whole plethora of complexity. She’s an odd cat, because she was born and bred to play an instrument. And when you can’t do that, you actually lose the definition of who you are.
She’s just a bundle of emotions trying to construct her way through the day. She was much more complex than I originally thought. And the more I do it, the more I find her and that’s been a good thing. I think I know myself pretty well, so I’m not really learning things about myself. I’m learning more about what I can explore as an actor. Glenn?
Glenn: I’m not quite the bullshit artist that Gary is in my real life. But I’m single and on the run from myself. (They both laugh) And maybe I need to take a few leaves out of Gary’s book and start trying to find some sort of commitment to standing still and owning up to my flaws.
I love that answer. Let’s talk about the music, because in the play we’ve got this distinct clash of country versus classical. Are your music tastes in real life in opposition to each other?
Georgie: We both love David Bowie, so.. (laughs)
Glenn: When we did this play the first time around, I was never really a country and western aficionado. But I did start listening to it and now my song lists and my album collection feature a lot of Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell. And being a Glenn myself, as a kid, I was always a little bit enamoured of Glen Campbell. I am really open to country music, but I’ve always been much easier with classical stuff.
Georgie: I respect country music and I admire the musicality of it. There’s some country music that I really do like, but it’s not something I would listen to. I was raised with Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Crosby, Stills, Smash & Young. And even Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd, so that’s more my vibe, but I do love classical.
I was a ballet dancer, so I was raised with classical music. My mother is also a huge classical music listener so we did listen to a lot of Mahler, Stravinsky and Rachmaninov growing up. I had a very early relationship with a guy who actually was a classical violinist and he had to give up because he got RSI in his wrist from playing. And he introduced me to a lot of classical music. So I gravitate towards classical but I really do appreciate and love the musicality in the storytelling of country music.
Is this the first time Brisbane audiences are going to see this play?
Georgie: I think so. Didn’t you do it up in Noosa?
Glenn: I did, that was 15 years ago. And I did a New South Wales and Victorian tour with Ally Fowler because Georgie couldn’t do it. Two years ago, I had an accident on stage at the Ensemble Theatre. I skidded making a fast entrance and I broke my ankle. So Georgie did the second half of that season with Matt Minto who was the understudy.
Oh wow! So you broke your ankle on stage?
Georgie: It happened at the beginning of the show. I kept thinking, ‘What have you done?’ His face was looking at me like ‘Ayee.’ He kept on sitting down when he came on stage, and I thought ‘Oh no.’ Then Glenn, as actors do, thought, ‘Well nothing can stop the show. I’ll just strap it up.’ But his foot looked really bad! And the audience totally understood, they were amazing. And then he was out. It was a classic devastating theatre story. It was crazy. So this kind of feels like it had to happen, you know. The fact that we get to come to Brisbane is just this perfect circle.
Glenn: That’s absolutely accurate for me. To close the circle is a privilege.
That’s amazing! What are you hoping Brisbane audiences are going to come away with after seeing this play?
Georgie: Just a good night.
Glenn: The laugh ratio in this play is really high and that’s part of the pleasure of doing it. Georgie and I don’t get bogged down before a show. We jump around backstage and then we go on and do the play. It’s just a riot. There’s a scene right at the top of Act Two which is as much fun as I’ve ever had in a play. Just sitting there with Georgie doing this bar scene. And hopefully, Brisbane audiences will come along for that ride because if they do, they’re in for a treat.
Georgie: This play reaches beyond the idea of a night at the theatre. You sit there and you let us take you on a ride. Well, you let David Williamson take you on a ride. It’s such a fresh voice for David.
Glenn: It’s not like other Williamson plays. It’s just a really gorgeous romantic comedy that has a lot of laughs and a lot of heart. I’m really excited to get to Brisbane. I’ve done a job in Brisbane in the winter before and it was heaven. And I hope Brisbane audiences will be as receptive to us as we are going to be to them.
I just have one last question I like to ask everyone we chat to. What advice do you have for anyone wanting to get into this industry?
Georgie: I would advise you to have a Plan B. This is an industry that requires everything from you and it will not always give back to you what you invest into it. You can be one of the best actors out there and you will maybe get one or two jobs a year. There’s just not enough work in Australia for the number of actors that are around. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t throw yourself into it.
But I think, for your mental health, you do need a Plan B where you can go and support yourself and actually feel like you’re not at the mercy of someone else saying you’re worth employing. It’s a great industry, but it’s also brutal.
Glenn: I’ve made so many stuff ups in my life that I’m not qualified to give anybody advice. I think only dentists should give advice. (They both laugh) Just be kind to people. Georgie is a great lesson for me in how to treat everybody with respect and have fun with people. Never piss off a Stage Manager, that’s rule number one. Don’t piss anybody off. You’re going to meet everybody again somewhere.
But here’s what I would say. This is what I do when I get a job. I buy cleaning products when they’re on special and I buy them in bulk, so that when I’m not working, I’ve got a really nice clean house and I don’t feel shit about myself. So my advice is – buy cleaning products in bulk when you’re working and store them under the house. So when you’re unemployed you can at least not feel like you’re living in a hovel.
Queensland Theatre’s Rhinestone Rex and Miss Monica runs from 28 May to 21 June at the Bille Brown Theatre, 78 Montague Road South Brisbane 4101.
Tickets are on sale now!
Website: https://queenslandtheatre.com.au/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/qld_theatre/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/glenndara/ and https://www.instagram.com/georgieparker/
