Fremantle Theatre Company Season 2024
The Dog / The Cat
by Brendan Cowell & Lally Katz
April 3 - 21
FTC is very excited to welcome back Michael Abercromby (Steve in Last Train To Freo) as a Director of this incredible pair of comedic plays, with JACK RABBIT PRODUCTION presenting their first show with us in Freo.
Sharing man’s best friend with your ex-best friend is hard.
Being in the doghouse with your own cat is harder.
THE DOG / THE CAT by Brendan Cowell & Lally Katz is a purr-fect rom-com double bill about breakups, makeups and the pets caught in the middle of their human’s drama. Whether its negotiating park etiquette, or organising shared custody of a fussy feline, this WA premiere has something for both dog and cat people alike.
And the cast are a ridiculously over-talented bunch ready to knock your little socks, and toe-beans, right off!
JAMES SWEENY (Total Control on ABC, The Secret Daughter and Home & Away on CH7, Neighbours, Love Child and Molly),
SIOBHAN DOW-HALL (Cloudstreet Foxtel, Playthings BSSTC, A Doll’s House for Tempest Theatre) and;
ADAM SOLLIS (Cloudstreet Foxtel, Stormworld, Dance Academy: The Movie, Riot on ABC, Home & Away, The Effect for FTC and most recently The Surfer, starring Nicolas Cage).
The Dog
What better icebreaker is there than a bag of fresh dog poo? Brendan Cowell (Love My Way, Ruben Guthrie) brings his usual flair for wit and banter to this insightful look at the awkward world of friendship and romance at the dog park. Following ex best friends Ben and Marcus, and their separate trips to the park with their co-owned dog ‘Jerry Seinfeld’, this relatable rom-com playfully teases park-goers, horny canines, broken relationships and the petty troubles of aspirational 30-somethings.
The Cat
Breakups should be a heartbreaking affair… unless of course there is a brutally honest Cat present that’s wildly binge-ing Parent Trap and Nikki Minaj. Lally Katz (Neighbourhood Watch, Wentworth) gleefully, surreally and at some points musically, takes us on a voyeuristic tour of breakups, rebounds, horrible hobbies and what our pets truly think of us. The marriage collapse of Alex and Albert is complicated by the shared custody arrangement they’ve engaged for their beloved cat: ‘Cat’. Despite the claws, this joyous comedy is a charming, quirky and a hilariously fresh take on the rom-com genre.
Last performed to sell-out houses at Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, this will be the WA Premiere of this incredibly funny comedy pairing. FTC + JackRabbit Productions are proud to be bringing this double-bill to WA for the first time. Staged in Victoria Hall in Fremantle, The Dog/The Cat is a part of the inaugural season of the FTC Independent incubator.
Jack Rabbit Productions work between Perth + Sydney, producing high-impact, high-energy shows, that test the boudnaries of our 'polite' theatre framework - in just the way that FTC enjoys.
Praise for Jack Rabbit:
“Let’s hope...JackRabbit Theatre keep producing this special kind
of magical work” - Lisa Thatcher
“JackRabbit are definitely living up to their mission of keeping it loud,
fast and entertaining” — The Buzz From Sydney
Cast.
JAMES SWEENEY
An accomplished screen & theatre actor. James graduated WAAPA in 2013, appeared in the AACTA award-winning first season of Total Control (ABC), The Secret Daughter (Ch7), and most recently Totally, Completely, Fine. You may also recognise him from Home & Away, Neighbours, Love Child and Molly.
James has led productions at BSSTC, including As You Like It, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and Tartuffe.
James is also an avid writer, co-writing The Pitch (winner of the weekly Comedy award at Fringe World 2020), Good, Die, Young (2018 Sydney Fringe) and The Swell Party.
SIOBHAN DOW-HALL
A WAAPA graduate, Siobhan is a life-long Fremantle resident is thrilled to be performing at Victoria Hall. Recent performance highlights include Playthings, by Scott McArdle for BSSTC, and Susie Conte’s adaption of A Doll’s House for Tempest Theatre.
She is delighted to be working with such fantastic artists on The Dog/The Cat, even though she and Adam Sollis played brother and sister in Foxtel’s Cloudstreet, and this time around they’re playing…not brother and sister!
Siobhan is currently writing her PhD, while teaching at WAAPA and the University of Notre Dame, and is so happy to see all her favourite students in the audience.
ADAM SOLLIS
Born & bred a stone’s throw from Fremantle, he received his high-school education at John Curtin College of the Arts before attending WAAPA, graduating in 2014. Adam's television and film credits include Cloudstreet, Stormworld, Dance Academy: The Movie, Riot [ABC], Home and Away, and most recently The Surfer, starring Nicolas Cage.
Adam’s theatre credits include Tonsils and Tweezers for BSSTC, Once In Royal David's City for QTC/BSSTC, Hit, Necrophilia and WRATH for JackRabbit Productions, Shepherd and Never Closer at Belvoir 25A, and The Effect for FTC.
Adam will be reprising his role in Never Closer in mid 2024 for the Belvoir main stage season.
Launching the FTC INDEPENDENT program.
It's all about radical access, hyper inclusivity and a revived grassroots & mid-tier performing arts sector, for FTC in 2024.
This purpose built program take advantage of our home in the Victoria Hall theatre, our producing acumen and our fantastic audience - and makes each valuable resource readily available to international acts, independent producers and local artists.
In 2024, you will witness a line-up of fantastic shows that come to us not only bearing true-Freo performers but award-winning UK theatre companies, returning TV stars, experimental dance and stand-out new directors and producers who are taking their careers by the horns. It's everything you'd hope for from a performing arts pace in Fremantle, and we hope, just a little bit more!
And we very much look forward to letting you know about each and every great event, and how to get yourself involved. Just watch this space!
FTC Launches
Youth Artist Classes!
Acting Classes for 15 - 18 yo
In response to the many, many asking, we are now delivering a Professional Theatre Training Program for young performers aspiring to develop their skills confidence and stagecraft, as a part of our new youth initiative – New Wave.
Classes are designed for the more mature end of students, 15 – 18, readying themselves for a career in the arts. The training aims to capitalise on what they have learnt at school and provide them with the skills and insights to begin focusing on working in the industry and developing their own ‘voice’ and artistry, for performance.
The program will be led by HERMIONE GEHLE, a performer and theatre-maker in her own right, who brings a wealth of experience to the room. Her classes will offer opportunity for these young artists to expand their abilities, explore their range as performers, and begin to navigate their personal brand as artists.
And of course, as a program hosted by a real Theatre, we look forward to hosting classes in the glorious Victoria Hall Theatre and welcome to the fray a line-up of guest tutors, who can bring to the room their own real-world insight and inspiration.
Acting is magical.Change your look and your attitude,
and you can be anyone. - ALICIA WITT
It's got to do with putting yourself in other people's shoes and seeing how far you can come to truly understand them. I like the empathy that comes from acting.
- CHRISTIAN BALE
What more do we need right now, than a reminder of how to embrace empathy? And how to transform ourselves for the better? Actor training is the pathway to just that!
Location: Victoria Hall, 179 High St Fremantle Duration: 2hrs, once a week.
Mentoring Programme
Fremantle Theatre Company regularly receives requests from young artists and art workers who are looking to further their experience and to have guidance within the profession.
The FTC Executive leadership has experience in many areas of the performance industry which gives them the ability to mentor broadly in the industry.
Our Artistic Director, Renato Fabretti, has a particular interest in ensuring that homegrown talent is nurtured and is given a place on the stages of our state. His work in film and on stage as an actor and a creator, makes him ideally placed to mentor young artists wishing to make their way in the profession.
Our General Manager, Pippa Davis, has a background in design, production management, venue, and arts management. This diverse background gives her the ability to mentor people in many areas and to guide them in integrating the various skills into a cohesive approach within the performing arts industry.
This funding will allow the company to work in a more structured way with aspiring artists and arts workers. The mentee can be in professional or community work and at any stage of their career.
To apply please send an email to victoriahallfremantle@gmail.com letting us know what area you are interested in and whom you would like to work with. Please include contact details and a short statement of your artistic practice or area of interest.
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