Stage show tackles ugly face of ice addiction with footy heroics

What happens when you mix the drug ice with a stage play about winning an Australian rules grand final with your best mates?

You get the 2017 version of The Forwards, an "in your face" tragicomedy stage show set to kick butt at the Brisbane Powerhouse's Visy Theatre.

The Forwards production has a great pedigree.

It is staged by the Gold Coast's Shock Therapy Productions, who put together The Apology at Boggo Road Prison in 2015, then The Pillowman at the Powerhouse later that year.

They won a swag of Matilda Awards last year for their work.

Shock Therapy's founders Sam Foster and Hayden Jones play two of the Pintoon Parrots' main forwards Hoges and Tractor in the 48 hours around the football grand final in the regional town of Pintoon.

Actor Ellen Bailey plays the third, Rabbit, and also one of the trio's girlfriends, Julie Carter.

"Julie is the character that narrates the whole story," Foster says.

"And it starts the night before the grand final and the audience comes in to the final training session so to speak," he says.

"And then it goes through to the night after the grand final. And then skips ahead to 18 months later."

You enter to a scene of goal posts and goal squares, a thumping drum kit with car bodies and tyres around "the boundary" – with beers, parties, nightclubs and families mixed in to show gruel.

Newcastle-born Stefo Nantsou directs The Forwards and originally wrote the play in 2004 based on stories he heard as he toured around regional Victoria.

It toured throughout New South Wales and Queensland as a schools-based show until Nantsou was asked to produce it for larger shows.

The impact of ice, or crystal methamphetamine, was one of the newer additions to the updated, bigger version of The Forwards.

Nantsou had to add it, he says.

"I don't know how many times I have heard 'It's a scourge, mate. It's a scourge'," he says.

"Bikies have come into town and they turned that old home into a laboratory or a factory."

"And it's a real Breaking Bad-type scenario."

Where marijuana ruled regional Australia 15 years ago, it's now a world of ice, Nantsou says.

"It's a whole new world out there now."

"I guess I just sniffed this all out and thought, 'this is where the show should go'."

As The Forwards moves through the grand final day, then the match, one of the main characters reveals their addiction.

The show watches the rising and falling impact on the town of Pintoon, through its police, the players, their families and the fans.

"It's similar to the old baseball stories where talented local player makes it out of town," Nantsou says.

"For a while, the whole town rides you like a horse, so to speak."

Nantsou says he wants to keep the show staged as an Aussie rules grand final.

"It was tempting to go with league," he says.

"But we've (Australians) got our own game, so I thought that's the way to go."

What and where

When: Wednesday, June 14 to Saturday, June 24, 2017 (excluding June 18 and 19)

Time: 7pm

Where: Visy Theatre, Brisbane Powerhouse

Tickets: $20-$35 (additional booking fees apply)

Bookings: http://brisbanepowerhouse.org/events/2017/06/14/the-forwards/

Recommended for audiences over the age of 13

Who?

A cast of five playing multiple characters

Main cast: Sam Foster, Hayden Jones, Ellen Bailey, Stefo Nantsou and Rob Diley

By?

Gold Coast-based Shock Therapy Productions with Zeal Theatre