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From This is Derbyshire
14 October 2005
In a lather over soaps
After been written out of TV's Home and Away, Ben Steel is well cast in a play about the absurdities of soap operas. Ashley Franklin reports.
In the Prologue to the Derby Playhouse production of Serial Killers, we're immediately thrown into an end- of-episode cliffhanger to the soap St Celia's.
A fire is raging in Ward Four. "Heartthrob surgeon" Doctor Robert Gilligan, played by Andrew Lomas, bravely disappears into the smoke to rescue a patient.
Cut to Act 1 Scene 1 where one of the scriptwriters declares: "And, at precisely 6.01pm, the title music fades - and, in the blink of an eye, Andrew Lomas is Dr Robert Gilligan, human torch. Pfoof! Exit crap actor, entered blackened sausage thing."
However, the good doctor has a remedy: he takes the scriptwriters hostage so that he can be rewritten into the story???
Art truly mirrors life: Ben Steel, who plays the soap star Andrew Lomas, was the popular character Jude Lawson on Home and Away from 2000 to 2002.
He, too, was written out. Ben didn't react like Lomas; he was hurt, but bowed out with grace. However, in all other respects, Ben can totally relate to Serial Killers.
"Like the soap in the play, Home and Away was starting to change; the writers wanted to try different things. Also, my character had got to the point where the writers had got bored with him.
"As much as it is about pleasing the audience, it's about pleasing the creative team. You are at the whim of these people; our careers are out of our control. I was told that Jude had 'come to the end of his journey'. It's a nice way of saying 'we don't need you anymore'.
"It's hard to take when you've lived with this character for so long. It was like losing a friend. It was also the first job I'd been fired from. I'm still raw from it. Mind you, they didn't kill me off and they've actually asked me back - twice - so I feel kind of vindicated."
Ben can also relate strongly to the "us and them" mentality of the soap writers.
There is an uncomfortable moment in the play when Andrew Lomas invades the scriptwriters' sacred territory to discuss his character, saying: "I've had had a couple of ideas where we can take him."
Ben reveals that he, too, offered ideas to the writers.
"Some ideas I passed on actually turned up on screen. I made suggestions because I've always thought that it's a team effort, whatever you do. However, when you talked with the writers, you always felt as if you were treading on eggshells. It's still regarded that the writers are the brains behind the project and they are making you the star. They're also disgruntled because they're not getting the sex, the fame or the glory and that all you do as an actor is turn up to do your few minutes and walk away with a fat cheque.
"That's why this play appealed to me: it's about my industry; and anyone who's interested in this industry - how soaps get made and what the people behind soaps are really like - will see a very accurate portrayal. It's so accurate, it's scary."
Ben also believes that non-soap followers will enjoy Serial Killers and that the machinations in the play will reverberate with audiences involved in their own industry/
"Anyone who has a boss to answer to can relate to this. Office politics is all about passing the buck, trying to get ahead. That's what you see here."
Ben admits that soaps are "not art" but he does believe that Serial Killers runs much deeper than any soap and has something substantial and interesting to say.
"This is not a shallow one-gag-after-another play. It's funny, alright, but it's not pure parody with a bunch of actors having fun. This really opens the curtain to give you a look at those crazy, funny, witty, screwed up people who make soaps and deals with some pretty hard issues that may shock and surprise you and really affect your gut." | | |