After her parents came to see her third year university graduation play and her dad, the most intelligent human she has ever met, rubbed his head entirely confused at what he just saw, Mary Coustas had a revelation.
“I had an epiphany. I thought if I can’t entertain the people that I love the most, then who the hell am I doing this for?” said Coustas.
From then on she decided to search for characters in the world that she grew up in and put them on stage rather than find characters from a society she had no emotional connection to.
‘This is Personal,’ explores her migrant upbringing, life experiences and all the characters that have shaped her, most importantly the culture and stories of her Greek immigrant parents who she was fascinated with and are played in this show.
“We are born into theatricality because the Greeks are such large characters. Their great philosophers, they know what is important in life; family, togetherness and community. They are very alive and they are honourable, they know what matters and they show up and that’s theatre.”
“I saw that very clearly when I was a child. I couldn’t help but notice the characters, the language and I was obsessed with my parents’ generation. I loved listening to their stories about the villages and when they came to Australia.”
Coustas also delves into her challenging IVF experience, which she endured for 10 years after the Sydney Opera House asked her to do a one woman show on ‘Mary’.
“I knew that the audience wanted more Mary after my personal story became public, you know. I saw how people reacted, how the country reacted, I was literally trending,” she said.
“60 minutes came in moments after my daughter Jamie was born. I had just a dramatic journey to that moment. You know I’d lost a child, it was heavy and relentless. So many losses along the way. So much heartbreak, so much despair, so much running out of hope.”
Coustas sees this challenging journey of ‘not giving up’ at being able to speak to her audience in ‘This is Personal’ from a “deeply personal place” to others who have, or will, experience a similar journey and being able to articulate major issues of losing a child, getting pregnant and racism a in a comedic yet tearful manner.
This candid and intimate ‘Mary’ show of theatrical storytelling tells the audience that she was “able to turn it around” and “take the pain and put it somewhere positive.”
“There are seriously hilarious scenes and moments, it’s very physical, it’s very funny but then there’s a lot of tears, and the audience cry as much as they laugh in the show.”
However, she was not all sure to tackle Mary and was frightened at the thought of breaking away from Effie. “I was terrified at the idea.”
“It’s something I chose to do because doing a one woman show is one of the most difficult things you can do on stage, because it’s literally just you and the audience,” she said.
“This show is even harder because its a Mary show, not an Effie show. But I pulled in people I admire that know me and my work and one of which is Chris Anastassiades who has done a lot of work with us over the years.”
She also had the help of her husband and her closest friend, a Hollywood producer who also looked at the original material.
“I said ‘give me notes and tell me what is wrong with what we are up to’ even though I was very confident we’d done something awesome. They said what they said, but they could see all that it was going to be,” she said.
“Even with the incredible reviews that we got before I did this season of shows, there was a rewrite on a couple of sections and some bits were tightened and I added a couple of bits because I just want it to be as good as it can be.”
Mary wants to make her audience feel as many feelings as possible in her personal show.
“Trust me when I say this, I mean it with my whole heart. I would never waste the public’s money or time if this wasn’t the best thing I could deliver and so I want everyone to see this show.”
THIS IS PERSONAL
● June 13 to 17 – The Concourse Chatswood, Sydney
● June 27 to July 1 – Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne
● October 4-7 2023 – Darwin Entertainment Centre, Playhouse