FORMER Mandurah performer Ruhama Geiger is exploring whether love is real, and if it really lasts, as part of the Old Mill Theatre’s latest offering.
Written by Joanna Murray-Smith and directed by Dale James, Honour follows a couple’s exhausting and confronting – yet also tender and poignant – journey through life and love.
George and Honor – yes, that’s Honor without the ‘u’ – have been married for 32 years with a perfect understanding of each other.
But then a beautiful female journalist, sent to profile columnist George, methodically sets out to challenge that understanding. And George suddenly has eyes for someone else.
Honour has been produced in more than 35 countries, including productions on Broadway and at London’s Royal National Theatre in London. It also scored a 1996 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award.
Geiger plays the journalist Claudia and says the character has clear ideas on how people should behave.
“She is confident about everything and doesn’t question her own desires, despite the effect they may have on others,” she said.
“Claudia is searching for the things she feels she’s missed out on in life but is still working out the best way to go about this.
“However, she would never admit to any uncertainty at all – in fact, she doesn’t recognise it.
“Claudia makes some choices in the show that have been challenging for me to understand, showing me a very different perspective on love and life.”
Involved in theatre since high school where she appeared in several productions and studied TEE drama, Geiger went on to study performance at Curtin University and worked on numerous Hayman Theatre shows, on and off stage.
She also performed with Roleystone and Melville Theatres and the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre before working as a stage manager in the US at a theatre summer camp.
Now a teacher, Geiger takes her love of theatre into the classroom and is acting performance coordinator at an Armadale school.
She tries to tread the boards at least once a year and was most recently in Shadowlight Theatre Company’s Fringe World production Breathless and Blak Yak Theatre’s Never Ever.
“I'm a romantic to the core and have a very clear idea around what true love looks like and should be,” Geiger said.
“Honour challenges my conceptions about love and I hope it has the same effect on an audience.”
Director Dale James said Honour appealed because she admired Joanna Murray-Smith’s writing and use of words.
“The play’s title is a play on words, given it’s the name of the wife and topic of the play, looking at whether there is honour in love,” she said. “Does a history between two people deserve some honour?
“It’s a play about the eternal triangle and the respect, sense of duty and comfort between a couple who have been married for 32 years – what is it worth?
“Joanna gives you a blank canvas by not writing in stage directions or timeframes – she leaves the canvas for you to create the work upon, supplying the equipment for you to use.”
Honour plays at the Old Mill Theatre from October 7. Book now at oldmilltheatre.com.au/tickets.
