Q&A about the key themes in Stomach
Kaden and Montreal are an important part of Stomach. What, if anything, is the show saying about the way we use Social Media?
Jess: Amy and Sara's YouTube persona's started as a way of bringing something fun to the show, but as we rehearsed, Kadun and Montreal became a comment about the masks that we put up. It might not have started that way but its turned into a metaphor for that. Though Kadun and Montreal, these women can express a part of their personality that they don’t see in themselves in real life, or don’t feel comfortable sharing. Sara talks about Kaden being the best part of herself.
Both Amelia and Saraid spoke a lot about what the You Tube personas give to these characters. Ultimately, they are something are aspiring to be. It helps us to explore why we have these walls. Social media like this is a way to connect with people, but ultimately it is also a way of disconnecting. There are these layers to the scripts. The monologues of each character which are their real truths. The conversations between them show just an element of the truth, and their YouTube persona's are a whole other side of themselves. Amelia: Ultimately Saraid and I love lip syncing videos. It also helps us to highlight what the characters are saying, what they are not saying, and what they wish they could say. |
What was your approach to writing a play that dealt with eating disorders?
Saraid: When we first started talking about it as an element of the script, we wanted to write about it because we were frustrated with the way they were portrayed in the media. There was this character on Glee, and she was a cool multidimensional character on the show. But her character developed an eating disorder, and she got over that in the course of an episode. And it really frustrated me because it was so unrealistic. And while at the end of the episode there were these affirming messages that she got through it, I felt it was more destructive to show it as something you can get over so quickly, than for what it really is.
The show Gossip Girl also did something similar. There was a massive series of books, and I read them when I was little. The character who was played by Leighton Miester in the TV series has a really severe eating disorder in the books. It’s undercover, and she is plagued with it, fiercely bulimic. And they took it out of the TV series, and that frustrated me. It was an important part of the book. And an important part of how hard it is to be a girl with lots of pressure. It felt so realistic the way they dealt with it in the book. And on the show, they just got rid of it. So, it came out of a bit of anger about the issue being misused and misrepresented. Amelia: There’s this thing that a lot of the way eating disorders are written about, when they’re written about, the focus tends to be on the eating disorder itself, rather than the pressures around it. We wanted to look at and write about the bigger picture. |
Saraid: That being said, as we were writing Stomach we got scared about how people would react if the show was about an eating disorder. We were scared people think of it as ‘just a girls show’, or not get it. We worried that people who hadn’t experienced similar issues might not get it, and wouldn’t want to watch it. We kept having to come back to it, and remind ourselves that it was okay to make that a part of the show, and to put it in.
It took us quite a while to accept that the subject matter of the show was an advantage, not a disadvantage. It was helpful to get advice that we could actually say that the show was about an eating disorder.
Jess: I think the way we decided to deal with it in the play is through comedy, and through the honesty of the writing. It rings true.We were really careful to tread the line carefully between comedy and tragedy, and I think Stomach manages to do that really well.
It took us quite a while to accept that the subject matter of the show was an advantage, not a disadvantage. It was helpful to get advice that we could actually say that the show was about an eating disorder.
Jess: I think the way we decided to deal with it in the play is through comedy, and through the honesty of the writing. It rings true.We were really careful to tread the line carefully between comedy and tragedy, and I think Stomach manages to do that really well.
The story of Stomach follows the stages of friendship between Amy and Sara. How did you approach your portrayal of that theme running throughout the story?
Amelia: Almost the day that I left high school, all of a sudden I felt this freedom to ask people who I had been at high school with for five years, what their experience had been like. I was surprised to realise that while I was at school, really worried about what was going on for me, everyone else was also worried about what was going on for them, and we hadn't talked or connected about that.
I remember thinking ‘why didn’t we talk about that? We could have all been mates!' It was a really big realisation for me that actually we were all going through really similar things.
I also realised after high school that I did have an amazing group of friends around me, and that those people all really lovely. It made me realise that sometimes it is really difficult to see the people that are closest to you when you’re so worried about your own stuff.
Saraid: I think we also wanted people to know that even though a relationship or a friendship can end, it doesn't mean that it wasn't really good. Even though you might have hurt each other, it might have still made you a better person. Those relationships help you know yourself better.
Amelia: Friendships give you strength. I hope that people watch the show and see Amy and Sara;s friendship as a beautiful moment in their lives.
I remember thinking ‘why didn’t we talk about that? We could have all been mates!' It was a really big realisation for me that actually we were all going through really similar things.
I also realised after high school that I did have an amazing group of friends around me, and that those people all really lovely. It made me realise that sometimes it is really difficult to see the people that are closest to you when you’re so worried about your own stuff.
Saraid: I think we also wanted people to know that even though a relationship or a friendship can end, it doesn't mean that it wasn't really good. Even though you might have hurt each other, it might have still made you a better person. Those relationships help you know yourself better.
Amelia: Friendships give you strength. I hope that people watch the show and see Amy and Sara;s friendship as a beautiful moment in their lives.