Perth based theatre auteur Chris Isaacs has brought his challenging new stage production, FAG/STAG to the Royal Croquet Club.

Winner of the Adelaide Fringe Weekly Theatre and Best Performance in Melbourne Fringe awards, Isaacs’ claustrophobic two-hander plays as a bittersweet celebration of male friendship and affection. Produced by The Last Great Hunt theatre company, FAG/STAG makes for an honest, though-provoking hour of theatre that will touch anyone who has had a friendship that’s been strained to breaking point.

Isaacs caught up with ripitup.com.au to chat about some of the great mateships in theatre that helped shape his latest effort.

SIR IAN MCKELLEN and SIR PATRICK STEWART

Jeff and I often joke about how if FAG/STAG got a West End season we’d try and have the roles filled by Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart. They’re friendship is well documented. Their success even more so. We can’t think of two better role models for male plutonic relationships. Sure Jeff and I have run through the show trying to impersonate their voices, and sure we may have fantasised over being in a rehearsal room with them quoting Star Trek and Lord Of The Rings scenes… but I guess we do so because we both imagine spending time with the two of them would be remarkable.

Watch a few interviews the pair have done together (especially X-Men related ones) and you’ll see how calm they are with each other, how relaxed they feel in the presence of the other. Together they’re not two men over 60, it’s like they are schoolboys again.

WIL GREENWAY and STUART BOWDEN (The Lounge Room Confabulators)

I can’t think of two contemporary story tellers who are so in tune with each other. As individual artists they are kind, honest, absurd, and remarkable insightful. Put them together and The Lounge Room Confabulators is one of the most incredibly heart-warming experiences of theatre I’ve experienced. You can see how easily they work together, and know they share a real love for one another’s craft.

It’s no surprise they are close away from the stage too, and the warmth they put into their shows does not end when the lights go down. A true collaboration of like-minded gents.

JAMIE MACDOWELL and TOM THUM

Catch these two on stage whenever you can. The effortlessness banter between them is more like watching two guys have a couple of drinks at a bar than a performance. They share the stage with a great array of skills and humour and never let their immense individual talents get in the way of the greater product. When you watch a Jamie MacDowell and Tom Thum show you can see the friendship is real. It’s not a buddy buddy Simon and Garfunkle act, these guys genuinely get along.

ANTHEA WILLIAMS and NAKKIAH LUI (Sydney based Director and Writer)

So mateship’s not an exclusively male experience. The attributes of it which are most important are respect, compassion, understanding and a sense of equality. This director (Anthea Williams) and writer (Nakkiah Lui) combo has been a delight to see on the Belvoir stage in Sydney. Lui’s writing is at once humourous, strong, bold and honest, tied in with Williams’ ability to nurture a moment, find heart in the story and guide the script as a director makes this a wonderful team. Last year’s Kill The Messenger at Belvoir is a testament to this.

GEORGE MILTON and LENNIE SMALL (Of Mice and Men)

It’s not easy putting a bullet into the head of one of your closest friends in this stage adaptation of the classic novel. Sorry for the spoiler, but come on… book was published in 1937. The only fictional relationship in my list is the heart breaking one of Lennie and George. It breaks me every time. EVERY. TIME. The care and compassion for one another, the human fallibility of their own actions, the slow dissipation of their dreams – John Steinbeck doesn’t hold back on those emotional punches. This might be a mateship which ends sadly, but it hurts so much because we know what loss George feels pulling that trigger to spare Lennie the death at the hands of an angry lynch mob.

THE LAST GREAT HUNT

I can’t imagine what it would be like to work with people I don’t get along with. Luckily for me I have a wildly ambitious bunch of mates I create shows with. Jeffrey Jay Fowler, Arielle Gray, Gita Bezard, Tim Watts, Kathryn Osborn and Adriane Daff are some of the best, and I’m blessed to call them friends. On top of this to be in a company with them, to be making the work we make, it’s a humbling experience. We’re always pushing each other to be the best artists we can be, and that’s not an easy thing to do.

Some days are difficult, some days we’ll argue, some days we’ll get angry at one another, but at the end of every project we’ll sit down and talk and laugh and spend time together in a way which is more than a company, it’s a bit of a family… a family who I would spare the death of at the hands of an angry lynch mob.

Fag/Stag is at the Royal Croquet Club from February 26 – 28