Christian Tagliaferro plays a magician in The Outside Man.
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But even magic can’t help Enzo the Magician find love in Merrigong Theatre’s latest collaboration with The Disability Trust.
Enzo does however find the courage to try and find love again by the end of the play showing at Illawarra Performing Arts Centre from Friday, March 17.
‘’He starts the show heartbroken. The magic has disappeared from his life,’’ Tagliaferro said.
‘’By the end I don’t really find love but rather the courage to try and find love again, or the hope for a new love.’’
The feeling that love eludes certain members of our society is debunked in The Outside Man, an original musical theatre production from the team behind The Man Who Dreamt the Stars.
Like that 2014 production, all seven cast members in The Outside Man are participants of The Disability Trust’s Altogether Drama Group.
Anne-Louise Rentell also returns as director, as does musical director Daryl Wallis, who came up with the idea that the production should feature lots of original songs about love.
‘’Christian [Tagliaferro] actually composed one of the key songs [Alice] in this show one weekend in 2015,’’ Rentell said.
‘’That's when the idea came for let’s make a show that is actually all about original songs...on the theme of love. There is a variety of songs on the theme of love.’’
Tagliaferro’s character sings three of the 17 songs featured in this ‘’anarchic performance in which our learnt experience of romantic love is hijacked and reimagined’’.
‘’Everyone experiences love and we’ve tried to tap into that,’’ Rentell said.
‘’The performance in the show and the lyrics really tap into universal feelings and experiences of love.
‘’It is quite a moving show in all kinds of ways. I think it is a rollercoaster ride. It has got a lot of energy. We're containing this wonderful cast of seven and these wonderful personalities in this space.
‘’The songs are brilliant, it’s a lot of fun, it’s a bit of singalong and it’s a bit of stand-up comedy.’’
Rentell said the love metaphor in The Outside Man also refers to giving a voice to stories and voices that aren’t normally in the mainstream.
‘’It is trying to create or lessen that sense of being outside of something. So it is sort of opening up the world of performance to be inclusive and not keep people outside an experience, and that includes the audience,’’ she said.
There will be preview showings of The Outside Man on Wednesday and Thursday night from 7.30pm.
It officially opens on Friday night and runs until Saturday, March 25. Tickets at merrigong.com.au/ or 4224 5999.