Five questions for... Rita Kalnejais
November 2009
Rita Kalnejais is an actor, playwright and screenwriter. Since graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2001 she has appeared in numerous productions for Sydney Theatre Company, Company B Belvoir, Malthouse Theatre and Griffin Theatre Company and in a variety of short films. In 2007 Rita won the Inscription scholarship to study at Sydney Film School and recently completed Great Acts of Kindness: Acts 2 and 4, a short film starring Alice McConnell and Joel Edgerton, which she wrote, directed and co-produced.
B.C. is Rita's first play and was developed with PlayWriting Australia at the National Script Workshop 2009. It was produced in late 2009 by Full Tilt at the Arts Centre, Melbourne in association with the Hayloft Project.
You’re well-known as an actor from countless productions in Sydney and Melbourne. How does it feel now to be opening your first play as a writer?
I just want to finish writing it. Then I’ll be more relaxed. Then I’d answer: it feels lucky and exciting. I'm working with a director – Simon Stone – who understands my writing better than I do.
BC revisits the idea of immaculate conception. What inspired you to head down this road?
I was raised Catholic and while I'm not practising and most religious dogma leaves me cold, I have been left passionate about Mary. It drives me crazy – the church's de-sexing of women. Sexuality is at the core of our humanness. Denying it means you can't ever be honest about your intent. But my main question was about love. I wanted to explore the immaculate conception and virgin birth as a lovesong to humanness and how we do our best.
Did working on the play at the National Script Workshop earlier this year help you to prepare for this production with Full Tilt, or did it just leave you with even more questions to worry about?
It was fantastic, really intensely hard work. You’re pushed every day by the responsibility of working with brilliant actors and being questioned deeply by your dramaturg and director and everyone you work with. I totally left with more questions about my script but thank god. It blew it and me apart.
You recently wrote and directed a short film Great Acts of Kindness featuring Joel Edgerton. Can we expect to see more film work from you in the future?
Yes, you can. It took a long time to finish and the shoot was chaotic because it featured things like a dog being hit by a car and this dog seemed to already have a valium habit and wouldn’t go down. It was ambitious and the whole process was anarchy. So I think it will take me a couple of months before I start talking about directing a film again but I did fall for the whole process.
What’s your next project?
Lally Katz and I have been talking about writing each other roles in a play where we both play ourselves. I'm writing another play called Their Last Night on Earth was to be Spent in Each Other's Arms. That's more just a pile of yellow post-its and diary entries at the moment. Acting-wise I'm doing Furious Mattress by Melissa Reeves at the Malthouse in February. She was at the Workshop with me; her play is fantastic. And a short film directed by Dom Allen written by Miles Allison, a very beautiful poet. I am also looking into ways of fixing my bike so it stops squeaking.
