Interview: getting philosophical with Teresa Tate Britten
Teresa Tate Britten’s next stage production Human Activity continues her personal pursuit to make acting her “signpost message to the world”
Interview by Clare O’Rourke
It’s been ten years since actor Teresa Tate Britten relocated to Sydney from the small regional town of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. As a young girl, acting and the theatre were both foreign concepts to her.
“I don’t recall a piece of theatre ever coming to my hometown and in high school we didn’t even have drama offered to us.”
It was only when her uncle introduced her to Les Misérables on SBS that she fell in love with theatre. Lea Solonga, a Tony winning Filipina actress, was starring in the rendition she watched and being from a Visayan-Filipina-Kiwi-Australian background herself, Britten was inspired.
“Theatre explodes your mind and location really matters in terms of where it’s performed. If you’re from a small community… theatre can give you an insight into other people’s lives and [it can] grow empathy within society.”
I’m chatting to Britten on a Tuesday evening through a Zoom call. She’s just had a “crazy day of mumming” with her two toddlers, but she displays no signs of tiredness. Her responses are full of enthusiasm, her smile is disarming, and she's endearingly animated. She’s one of those rare people who’s turned their passion into a career, and her acting career is her “signpost message to the world.”
Her next project, Human Activity, written by Katie Pollock, delves into the aftermath of the Sydney Lindt Café siege, the 2014 terrorist attack where a lone gunman held ten members of public and eight café employee’s hostage at the Martin Place Lindt Café. Two of the hostages and the gunman died at the scene, and the incident disturbed the nation.
The play follows five characters dealing with their own troubles amidst the sombre mood in the city, the day after the siege. It reaches a catastrophic climax when they happen to stumble upon Martin Place at the same time. Delving into juxtaposing themes of division and solidarity, this play is being released at a pitch perfect time. In an era where Australia feels both unified (following the FIFA Women’s World Cup) but also deeply segregated (with the upcoming Indigenous Voice Referendum), it will be a stark reminder that our nation still faces the same issues as we did ten years ago.
Britten moved to Sydney a year before the siege, so I asked her what she recalled from the time:
“I remember being glued to the TV and [not] knowing what the hell was happening. I was on edge and worried, watching the people involved.”
“Because it was located where we are, [in Sydney], I think it made everyone’s neck hairs prick up because you would never think it would happen here.”
Britten was particularly interested by how the siege reminded Australians of the globalised world we live in: “As Australians we [sometimes] don’t associate with international content. We see things on the news and disconnect from it but we live in a very unified – and un-unified – world.”
Pollock represents this idea of a globalised world through the play’s diverse ensemble of characters. Britten reflects that “the cast are a representation of everyone. There are different ages, ethnicities and genders, but we’re all Australian.”
Apologising for getting “too philosophical”, she says after a long, considered pause, “you can never be too careful thinking you are different to someone. Who we are today may not be who we are tomorrow due to life’s great circumstances.”
I’m always interested in how actors involved in sobering productions can switch off after each performance, so I ask her and she responds with: “I love a glass of red and trashy TV shows,” she lets out one of her contagious laughs. “Also if my kids aren’t asleep when I get home then they bring me right back into reality.” It’s hard to imagine Britten being solemn for too long, her optimistic energy seems innate.
Human Activity is a collaboration between bAKEHOUSE theatre company and Nautanki Theatre. It shows at KXT on Broadway from 15 – 30 September and then moves to Riverside Theatre in Parramatta between 4 – 8 October. The partnership aims to transfer art between different Sydney locations in order to spotlight diverse voices throughout the community. Having learnt about Britten’s upbringing in the Northern Territory I asked her how important this concept was to her.
“I borderline don’t have any words because it is so important.” She leans towards her laptop camera on the “so.”
“Everyone in Sydney has access to the theatre but not everyone would access the theatre. It is imperative.” She is also clear that because she now has finite time, she only works on projects that grab her and are saying something important. This play is no exception and with this added layer of ‘culture-sharing’, she feels it adds even more purpose to her work.
I conclude my chat with Britten by asking which content she’s enjoyed lately from diverse artists. She recommends Cap Carter, a Filipino musician from Western Sydney who just returned from his US tour. She also loved her friend Jules Orcullo’s production, Forgetting Tim Minchin, which showed at Belvoir Theatre in July. It doesn’t take Britten much time to think of these recommendations and she lists them with gusto. .
I’m feeling particularly patriotic at the moment. Three weeks after the Matilda’s stellar performance at the women’s FIFA World Cup I’m still intensely proud to be Aussie. Was it a coincidence that Britten was wearing a yellow top in front of a green wall? I’m not sure, but it made me feel another surge of pride for our nation as I interviewed a talented Australian, raised in the Northern Territory, who is passionate about what she does.
Human Activity plays at KXT on Broadway between 15 — 30 September 2023 and then at Parramatta’s Riverside Theatre between 4 — 8 October 2023. Find tickets and information here.
Image by Chris Starnawksi for Omnes Photography
Clare (or Yeah the Clare to her friends) enjoys life’s most random pleasures – a jar of (Aldi) peanut butter and Season 4 of Succession (#teamTom). Spotify told her that she spent an outrageous amount of time listening to music in 2022 and she’s out to break that record in 2023. She feels most creative when running or just before falling asleep.
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