COMEDY FAVOURITES LOUISE SIVERSEN AND PETER HOUGHTON TO PERFORM NEW SHOW IN MELBOURNE
Written by & starring Louise Siversen & Peter Houghton
Irene Mitchell Studio St Martins Theatre 44 St Martins Lane South Yarra
21 June – 16 July
A dynamite time travel comedy is set to rock Melbourne from June 21 in the unmistakable shape and form of two of Australia’s funniest actors, Louise Siversen and Peter Houghton.
Underneath Ms Archer slams a 21st-century woman face-to-face with a medieval man in a culture war that takes no prisoners.
Fresh off the back of the success of their work on MTC’s Green Room Award-nominated Heartbreak Choir by the late and great Aidan Fennessy, Siversen and Houghton have got the band back together and created a show for the ages, playing with ideas of cancellation, reconciling one’s past, and the confusions and quandaries of life right now. The pair’s long history of collaboration began in 1998, and they launched into Underneath Ms Archer in 2019 as a response to the internet echo chamber.
“We’ve never shied away from the tough stuff,” says Siversen, “In this show, we plan on running into it headfirst. Our play is an offering, an opportunity to confront, wrestle with, and illuminate difficult subjects.”
“Every age has its unquestioned certainties,” says Houghton. “Five hundred years from now almost everything we think and believe will seem ridiculous. But some ideas prevail and make sense in every age. What are they? How do we find the balance between conservation and progress? How do we even talk about it?”
The show digs hard into the question: can we come back from a mistake? On a long-haul flight, flight attendant Kelly Archer does something that she can’t undo – and the internet has a field day. The story plays with concepts of the Magna Carta, cancellation, and compromise. All this – wound tightly into a comedy about how being stuck with family can sometimes suck.
“It’s comic. It’s mythic. It’s psychological. It’s spiritual. It’s emotional,” says Houghton.
“You’ll feel good when you hit the street after. It’s that favourite song that makes you cry. That thing in the back of your brain that knows there’s something bigger going on.”
“It’s that feeling that we’re all in this together… whatever this is,” adds Siversen.
Houghton was nominated for a Green Room Award for his direction on last year’s Heartbreak Choir, has directed or performed in more than twenty productions for MTC, and has won Green Room Awards for Best Actor, Best Director and Best New Australian Play.
Siversen was nominated for a Silver Logie for her compelling work as Judge Glenda de Bono in Janus. Her career spans generations – to some she’s best known for her portrayal of Lou Kelly in Prisoner: Cell Block H, and to others for her more recent comic recurring character Miss Looby in House Husbands. Her comedic work on Melbourne’s stages is legendary.
The rest of the incredibly talented creative team have been similarly recognised for excellence, with sound design and composition by J. David Franzke, lighting design by Bronwyn Pringle, dramaturgy by Dr Chris Mead, costume design by Karine Larché, and set design by Sophie Woodward and Jacob Battista.
Underneath Ms Archer plays 21 June – 16 July at the Irene Mitchell Studio, South Yarra
Tickets: $30 – $50 plus heavily discounted group bookings.
Bios
LOUISE SIVERSEN
Louise Siversen is a highly respected and accomplished actor. She has worked extensively in Film, Theatre and Television for over 40 years and has appeared in many of Australia’s most respected TV shows.
Louise’s television credits include Love Me, The Gloaming, Five Bedrooms and Rosehaven, Utopia, Rake, Hamish and Andy’s True Story, Ronny Chieng: International Student, The Doctor Blake Murder Mysteries, The Sullivans, Blue Heelers, MDA, Wicked Science, The Games, State Coroner, Driven Crazy, Good Guys Bad Guys, Rush and Mercury.
She has played leading roles in House Husbands, Prisoner, The Flying Doctors, Bootleg, Chances, Eugenie Sandler P.I., High Flyers, Shortcuts, Neighbours, Stingers, The Secret Life of Us, Halifax F.P., Janus (Silver Logie nomination for Most Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role), and BackBerner.
Louise’s extensive theatre credits include MTC’s Heartbreak Choir (Green Room Award nomination for Outstanding Ensemble), Noises Off, The Girl Who Saw Everything, Art and Soul (Green Room Award for Best Ensemble), The Memory Of Water, All About My Mother, True Minds and The Joy of Text. Further credits include I Can’t Even (one-woman show), The Glory, Mum’s The Word 2: Teenagers, The Importance of Being Earnest, Morning Sacrifice, The Misery of Beauty, Barmaids and Coming to My Senses (one-woman show).
Louise’s film credits include The Surrogate, the film adaptation of Tim Winton’s That Eye, The Sky, Evil Angels and Eye of the Storm, Crackers, Josh Jarman, The Book of Revelation, Four of a Kind, and Sucker.
Short films include The Kingdom of Doug (Best Actor Award St. Kilda Short Film Festival), Blow, Shiny Thing, and What’s The Matter.
Later this year, Louise will premiere in Underneath Ms Archer, a show she co-wrote and will
perform with her colleague Peter Houghton and in 2024 will perform her one-woman show Birthday Cake (winner of the BBC’s Georgi Markov Award at the International Radio Competition) co-created with Playwright Ross Mueller.
Louise Siversen has been included in the annually published Who’s Who of Australian Women since 2006.
PETER HOUGHTON
Peter works as an actor, writer and director in theatre, film and television.
Theatre includes: As Actor: Macbeth, Misalliance, Birthrights, Laughter on the 23 Floor, Sweet Bird of Youth, His Girl Friday, Joy of Text, Shakespeare in Love, Three Little Words (MTC); The Trial and Travesties (Sydney Theatre Company); Tartuffe, The Pitch, A View Of Concrete, Ruby Moon, Tear From A Glass Eye (Malthouse Theatre); The Graduate (Her Majesty’s Theatre); The Beast (Ambassador Group); North by Northwest (Kaye and McLean). King John, The Crucible, Endgame (11th Hour).
As Playwright: The Pitch (La Mama, Malthouse, National Tour, UK tour, Black Swan, Queensland Theatre Company); The China Incident (National tour, La Mama, Malthouse Theatre); A Commercial Farce (Malthouse Theatre, National tour); The Colours (MTC).
As Director: Art and Soul, True Minds, The Odd Couple, Hinterland, The Architect, Heartbreak Choir (MTC); Svetlana in Slingbacks, God’s Last Acre, The China Incident (Malthouse Theatre); Noises off (Marriner Theatres); Footprints on Water (Griffin); No Man’s Island (Melbourne Festival).
Awards: Peter has received more than a dozen Green Room Award nominations for his work including wins for acting (The Pitch, Endgame), direction (Footprints on Water, No Man’s Island) and as playwright (The Pitch). His production of Boy at the Edge of Everything won a Drama Victoria Award for best production. His production of Heartbreak Choir for MTC is currently nominated for eight Green Room Awards including Best Director and Best Production.
Screen Credits: Molly, Killing Time, Howzat Kerry Packer’s War, Utopia, Gallipoli, Wrong Kind of Black, Newstopia, Three Dollars, Metal Skin among others.
