AN angry headbutt in a suburban driveway unexpectedly ended up as a comedic stage play for writer-actor Geoff Paine.
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Unpack This is touring the south-west this week — Mortlake’s Soldiers’ Memorial Hall tomorrow night, Camperdown’s Theatre Royal on Friday night and Warrnambool’s Lighthouse Studio on Saturday night — and is proof that inspiration can come from the most unlikely of places.
“It was a hot Easter night in 2008 and I was living in a house in North Eltham,” Paine cheerily recounted, despite probably having told the “headbutt” story behind his play countless times.
“I cannot sleep because of the noise from next door, it’s 1.30am.”
He said the racket was coming from two teenagers and Paine went out into the street to begin “foolishly yelling” at them.
“The parents came out and they were drinking, there was a stoush in the driveway and I ended up headbutting one of them.
“I’ve never been in a fight in my life and I went for the bogan ‘Glasgow kiss’”
Paine was arrested, “set a world record for selling a house” and a year later was ordered to do a day-long anger management course.
While it was “awful” at the time, it ended up being the inspiration for Unpack This — a serious and seriously funny look at getting angry.
“The people in the anger management course started opening up and talking about their lives,” he said.
“As a writer, it was gold. I took notes all day frantically.
“I had no idea what I would use the stories for, but I eventually worked it up into a show.
“I changed the names and the details. The only undisguised story is mine.
“Some of the lines are verbatim from what the guys said during the course. Some of the lines I couldn’t have thought of in a million years.
“I think in the show you see (anger management) dealt with in a serious attitude, but when you talk after the event about the moments of craziness and misunderstanding, when you relate those elements, they’re actually very funny.”
While staging the play with Ross Daniels, Syd Brisbane and Michelle Nussey on and off over the past four years, including successful runs at the Melbourne Fringe Festival and Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Paine said he’d had a lot of people come up to him after the show to talk about their own anger experiences.
“Most of us have a moment where we see red,” he said.
“A lot of people tell me they’ve been there, done that.”
Paine and Daniels play three different “angry roles” in the play, while Brisbane and Nussey play two social workers struggling with their own anger issues.
As for the audience, Paine said he hoped they felt like part of the anger management workshop too, which makes the play work in any room.
