True Love Travels On A Gravel Road
May 2013
When in pursuit of an extraordinary dream, some people disregard any possible consequences.
That’s the concept award-winning playwright Jane Miller is bringing to the Melbourne stages with her comedy-drama, True Love Travels On A Gravel Road. Set in regional Australia, Miller’s new work explores the tragedy of broken dreams alongside the freedom of choice through a cast of colourful (and relatable) characters.
According to the playwright, it all began with the characters themselves – long before a concrete plot was conceived.
“That’s the kind of writer I am, really,” Miller states. “I always know the characters long before I know what I’m trying to say with the story. The plot for True Love Travels On A Gravel Road came out of an idea that I had of these two guys sitting on a street in some little town. I pictured them doing a business transaction and the whole time there is a dog that keeps barking… And that’s basically where the whole play evolved from! I started thinking to myself, ‘Why are they doing this business transaction, what’s it leading up to, what’s the impact going to be?’ After that, all the details of the story came flooding in.”
Next came the main characters of the story – Jake and Maggie. Although Miller claims all of them are completely fictional, the playwright admits that there are elements of her within each one of the characters. Much like musicians tend to describe their songs, Miller says all of the play’s characters are her “babies”.
“There is one incident in the play that happens between two characters, which was inspired by something similar to a real-life happening that my mother told me about, but that’s as close as it gets,” she insists. “I truly relate to all of them, it’s like picking your favourite child. It’s interesting how I am much more forgiving of my characters and the things they do – no matter how wrong they may be – than I am of real people I know. You can learn a lot about yourself through your own writing. If a real person did something similar to one of the characters, I would say, ‘Oh, that’s really strange’ or, ‘Oh, that’s unacceptable’, but when it’s people that you invent, you feel bonded to them.”
True Love Travels On A Gravel Road tells the story of Jake – pegged the town “tard” all his life – who falls in love with Maggie – a girl also “out of step” with the community – with whom he wants to run away to Graceland, of all places. Jake and Maggie’s plans to escape the small rural town and get away from the locals – including Maggie’s straight-talking mother, philosopher Richard, and Jake’s boss and boss’ wife – turn into a near-obsession which sees the play explore the extent to which some people will go in pursuit of their own happiness.
“It’s about the ruthless pursuit of happiness that makes really nice people do things that are not nice at all,” Miller explains. “These are people who are relatable and just ordinary, and even though it’s all set in this small rural town, it’s a universal story about how people behave. I also have a real love of the musicality of the way Australians speak – even when someone says, ‘No worries’, that is just so Australian, so that was something I really wanted to capture by setting it in a small town.”
True Love Travels On A Gravel Road is the second full-length play which Miller has written since making a come-back to writing following quite a long hiatus, and is also her second collaboration with director Beng Oh.
“I wrote a lot in high school and uni but then I stopped for years because I got a day-job and a house and all those things,” she laughs. “I came back to writing seven years ago and won the People’s Choice Award at the Short + Sweet Festival for my work Perfect Stillness. It surprised me as much as everyone else because it’s gone on to be performed internationally in places like India and the UK, there was a reading in New York and it did a tour around Australia.
“About four years ago I wrote my first full-length play called Happily Ever After, which was my first collaboration with the director of this play, Beng Oh, and that had a sold-out season at La Mama. I was very fortunate with True Love Travels A Gravel Road as well because after it was read at La Mama, it went on to win the R.E. Ross Playwright’s Script Development Award. I’ve also just finished a very preliminary first draft of a new full-length play which hasn’t even been read by actors yet, so I’ve definitely been making up for lost time.”
True Love Travels On A Gravel Road shows at fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, from May 15 until June 2.
Tickets available from www.fortyfivedownstairs.com at $37 Full and $30 Concession.
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