The performers invited to appear alongside host Wesley Enoch in 20 Questions might want to think twice before joining him on stage.
Enoch, artistic director of the Queensland Theatre Company, says he has been studying the interviewing techniques of Michael Parkinson and Andrew Denton, but his vision for the theatrical chat show sounds more like an episode of The Jerry Springer Show.
Curiouser and curiouser: 20 Questions host Wesley Enoch and co-deviser Eamon Flack.Credit: Harrison Saragossi
''As a host or provocateur, I've got to be prepared to put it on the line and push myself,'' he says. ''Maybe there will be a big punch-up at the end, but I'm not trying to bully people.''
The co-deviser of 20 Questions, Belvoir's associate director, Eamon Flack, adds his own explanation of the show, which makes it sound even more like a reality TV talkfest.
Actress Miranda Tapsell.Credit: Tamara Dean
''Wes is a great lie detector,'' Flack says. ''That's part of what is exciting and a little risky. Wes doesn't put up with anything for even half a second and I suspect Wes knows enough about people to know when they're lying.''
Enoch interrupts. ''It's not so much people will lie, but they may dodge the question. That's what I'll be looking out for.''
The premise of 20 Questions is simple. On a random Monday evening during the next five months, Enoch will sit down with indigenous performers such as David Page, Leah Purcell, Miranda Tapsell and Ursula Yovich.
''Ideally, what we're aiming for is that everyone is asked the same set of questions in the same order,'' Flack says, but guests may also be asked questions by the audience or by someone they know.
The show was inspired by rehearsal room conversations that were often as interesting and poignant as what was being prepared for the stage, he says.
''There are still so many stories to tell about indigenous Australia and at Belvoir we were barely scratching the surface. Art can't keep up with life.''
Theatre, Enoch says, is traditionally collaborative and painstaking. It can take years to bring an idea to the stage. ''What we are going to do is storytelling that is spontaneous and in the moment.''
Enoch, who is of Murri descent and is in a long-term relationship with David McAllister, the artistic director of the Australian Ballet, aims to tease out personal tales and perhaps rattle the odd skeleton in the closet, but he draws a distinction with autobiographical shows such as Jack Charles v The Crown.
''People will not know what is going to happen,'' he says.
''I think that gets it further than someone who gets to curate their own life.''
Enoch wants to be edgier than Parkinson or Denton, who he says have a ''pat'' interviewing style larded with research. ''20 Questions will be more dangerous and not so comfortable. People will not say, 'Isn't that lovely','' he says.
''I'll pursue ideas and ask people to go further than they've ever gone before.''
Enoch, who directed Black Diggers for the Sydney Festival this year, has been in a punchy mood lately. In the 2013 Philip Parsons Memorial Lecture, which he gave last December, he criticised theatre companies that expect actors and artists to work for free as ''immoral'' and predicted a bleak future for workers in the performing arts.
He told the Herald earlier this year to seek out friends and colleagues and ask them to reveal ''the ugly side'' of his nature.
''Tell them I give them permission! I don't want this nice-guy narrative around me any more.''
In her introduction to the upcoming Cultural Solutions: Griffith REVIEW 44, editor Julianne Schultz describes Enoch as a ''remarkable man''.
''He does not flinch from uncomfortable truths, but he is not rash, and so his insights and observations are highly valued, and sometimes passionately discussed,'' she writes.
But will he be brave enough to quiz Purcell on the 2011 court case she and her partner, Bain Stewart, lost to artist Robert Hannaford over the ownership of portraits used in her Black Chicks Talking project? ''At this point in time, I wouldn't want to scare her off, but we should be able to talk about tricky things,'' Enoch says. ''In the moment, people are more open about talking about things.''
Purcell might not bite his head off, but there is a fair chance other guests might get stroppy about the questions Enoch asks.
The sample list of questions for the show includes the innocuous (What did you want to be as a kid?), the amusing (What's your favourite swear word?), the poignant (What do you know about pain and suffering?) and the confronting (Do you ever wish you weren't indigenous?).
Enoch's answer to the last question is no. ''But you don't want to be black looking for a cab on Friday afternoon in Redfern,'' he adds.
Another question asks: Can you throw a spear? ''I've made a boomerang. My uncles have taught me language,'' Enoch says. ''What are all the cliches? I've gone through ceremony.
''I've never been to jail and never killed anyone. Yes, my family died 20 years younger. My father died at 65. I'm burying him on Friday''.
20 Questions opens at Belvoir on Monday.
The hot seat
Miranda Tapsell, who stars in television series Love Child, will be Wesley Enoch's first victim on Monday.
''I think I'm going to have a good time,'' she says. ''Sometimes it's good to let go and not be so measured about things.''
She is so optimistic about the production that she has agreed to answer some of the sample questions in advance.
What are your favourite words in your Aboriginal language?
My favourite word is ''luhlly'' and it means ''kiss''. I find it quite endearing how my family says it. I feel very loved when it's said. I sense love in the family.
Who was your first kiss? When? How far did you go?
Wow. Um, um, I'm all shy now. Actually, no, he was an English boy I worked at McDonald's with when I was 18, but I totally didn't know what I was doing. This is why it was mortifying. I remember thinking the whole time, ''Miranda, what are you doing?''
What do you regret?
I wish I had the courage to travel. I look at my younger cousins and I'm so amazed by the bravery they have for travelling. I was so scared to leave my country and home town because I did feel so connected to it. Moving to Sydney was such a big step. It was really, really overwhelming.
Have you ever played a white person?
No. Can you imagine all the things I could be if I played a white person? Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely proud of my identity, but … sometimes I just want to go to work and play dress-ups. Other times, I want people to see me as someone they could be friends with, rather than someone they need to be angsty against or to hate.
Do you ever wish you weren't indigenous?
Sometimes in high school in particular it was really challenging because I am short - I just make five foot. I'm Kylie Minogue's height. I'm not blonde-haired. I'm not blue-eyed. All that sort of stuff does get to me sometimes. I can't help but look over at that grass and see how much greener it would be.