INTERVIEW: Buckle up for Blue Room Theatre's theme-park spy thriller "Ride or Die"
From The Almost Collective, the creators behind All the Words I Cannot Find and Turder, She Wrote, comes “Ride or Die”, a new spy thriller theatre experience set in the whimsical world of amusement parks, where distraction aids immersion, and fun conquers all.
The Premise: Venture Land has been compromised on its opening day, rattling employees and guests alike. When two operatives arrive on the scene to uncover the source of the threat, a fun-filled experience turns into a titillating spy thriller. The only thing standing in their way? A spy’s secret theme park obsession. Will these agents lead guests to safety, or will their fascination distract them from the task at hand?
Ahead of their debut season at the Blue Room Theatre from June 9th - 27th, we spoke to writer-director duo Harper Nguyen and Parker Horne, where they unpack the show's immersive elements, the thinking behind its delightfully zany genre-blend, and their Letterboxd top 4 favourite spies and theme parks.
"Ride or Die" has been described as a spy thriller set in the universe of amusement parks. I'm obsessed with the premise. How did this idea come about?
Harper: A bunch of us were having a debrief brunch after completing another show, and about three of us there had a love of theme parks. Around this time, I was having a crisis of career, and had been interested in joining our intelligence agency, ASIO. Needless to say, I no longer want to join ASIO, but we decided to join those two interests together, along with a thought about how “the machine” uses big glitzy glamorous events to hide atrocities. Ride or Die is the child of all these thoughts. And then we had a great brunch at Hylin.
Ride or Die looks like it is designed as an immersive experience. In what ways is this work different from other, more traditional theatre you've been a part of?
Harper: There are elements people think of and expect when they hear “Theme Park”. It’s important to honour these expectations, especially seeing as we have three theme park nerds on the team (myself included). We hold some of these expectations ourselves, but we all value different things. For example, there’s a scene where one character talks about how there are secret interactions you can have with theme park workers, and to honour that, audience members can interact with the park workers before the show in the lobby. There are a tonne of sensory experiences the audience can interact with, and we hope people see the show more than once to feel it all!
Parker: Harper and I both love a theme park and as much as we love the rides and the comically expensive food, we both are very drawn to how the park runs, the techniques used to draw your attention and the details that you don’t notice but when you do it goes a long way. In Ride or Die there will be a lot of action happening at the same time, things in the background that could be missed, conversations from behind while the main action happens at the front. We really want the audience to feel that excitement from noticing something in the background, little blink and you will miss moments as that truly is the ultimate theme park experience.
What were your key influences going into this work? I'm picturing movies like Adventureland and Bourne Identity, (two references I never thought I'd put in the same sentence), but what were the cultural touchstones that fed into the world of Ride or Die?
Harper: I found myself drawn to the usual spy movies, I am absolutely obsessed with the Mission Impossible movies. I think in terms of spectacle, those movies cannot be topped. Other than that, my biggest influence is a video game called “Spec-ops: The Line”. If you haven’t played it, you absolutely should. It will rock your socks. In terms of narrative, and themes, that game is such a massive influence.
Parker: Going in, I definitely was thinking Daniel Craig Bond, Atomic Blonde, all those high-octane, serious, action-packed Spy thrillers; however, we knew we wanted two spies from the start, so those influences shifted toward more Man from U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, even Hot Fuzz. That buddy cop relationship and the more satirical and comedic take on spy craft pairs well with the larger-than-life setting of a theme park. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel around the world and have been to many theme parks, so I've been drawing on those memories and experiences when working on this show.
What has been the most challenging aspect of writing/directing the show, and how did you tackle it?
Harper: Parker and I have two very different styles of writing. He’s very slapstick, hearty, with a high jokes per minute rate, whereas my writing is very sappy, post-drama, and kind of lacking in humour and bleak. Writing to adhere to that very different style was one of the bigger challenges for me, I never thought what I wrote was funny. But when we got it into the room, our directing styles were very complimentary, and we ended up squeezing the script out for jokes and punches, bouncing off each other for even more laughs. We just wanna make each other laugh, and when we do make each other laugh, that’s when we know we’ve done a good job.
Parker: Finding the balance between bringing a theme park to life and also a traditional narrative spy story was a puzzle when helping write this show. I tend to be very traditional when it comes to narrative and I found myself stumped at times trying to not sacrifice one aspect of the show for another. However, I was fortunate enough to not burden this task alone. Along with having a wonderfully talented and experienced writer as Harper by my side, this show would not have been possible without the rest of the devising team. Before rehearsals, we had many writers’ rooms where everyone chipped in and helped curate the story we wanted to tell. We played, we experimented, and problems were solved as a team.
You've worked together before on Turder, She Wrote - how has your creative partnership evolved, and what did collaboration look like on this one?
Harper: I was just an actress on Turder, so having to transition to working with Parker as an equal was a bit of an adjustment for me. It’s like suddenly being chummy with your boss. But then I remember that we’re actually mates, and have been for five years, and then I feel silly for thinking like that. And then I remember being silly is what it’s all about so then I feel less silly. But because being silly is what it’s all about, I feel like maybe I could be sillier. It’s a viscous cycle.
Parker: Harper was just an actress on Turder so her now being my equal, took me some time to adjust. It felt like I was her boss and she was being all chummy with me. All joking aside, I am grateful to work alongside Harper for this show. Knowing her for five years now I’ve looked up to her love of comedy and play and also of her willingness to try and experiment. We have a very similar sense of humour so it has been great to workshop jokes and come up with ways to insert the comedy we both love. Immersive work isn’t my forte, and it has been wonderful to have a partner in Harper as she is able to see the bigger picture. On that, when creating an Immersive show, the Designers are the real heroes, so shout out to Jolene, Megan and Lachie, for helping us create our vision.
In Letterboxd fashion, name your top 4 theme parks/spies
Harper:
Theme parks:
1. Adventure world (big ups to my OG, my first love)
2. Movie World (My first experience with proper theming in a theme park)
3. Disneyland California (I mean, when it comes to an immersive experience, that is my sweetheart right there)
4. Legoland Malaysia (a blast, and I got to have chicken rice in a theme park, wow!).
Spies:
1. Ethan Hunt (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation)
2. Ethan Hunt (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol)
3. Ethan Hunt (Mission: Impossible - Fallout)
4. Leah Patterson (The ASIO agent assigned to keep tabs on me)
Parker:
I’m a big Bond fan, so my top four spies are probably just 4 different bond actors so I’ll put that ranking down instead
1. Pierce Brosnan (How could I not, he stars in Mamma Mia!)
2. Timothy Dalton (He just says words with such gravitas, and he rocks a Tan suit)|
3. Daniel Craig (Bond, more like Blonde. No but he’s great)
4. Sean Connery (The first to do it)
Theme Parks I’ll go with
1. Universal Studios Japan
2. Disney World, Orlando Florida
3. Universal Studios Orlando Florida
4. Disneyland California
What are you hoping audiences would take away from the Ride or Die experience?
Harper: I’m hoping audiences walk out not knowing how to feel. A bit more miserable than they thought they’d be. Maybe seeing the world differently? Kind of like when something devastating happens to you, and you keep seeing the world turning, cars passing, and people going about their day. We wanna be the devastating event, AND the world that keeps on turning.
Parker: First off, I hope everyone enjoys it and has fun with it. It's very silly and funny, and we are very excited to share our joy with everyone else. On the flipside, I also want people to leave and reflect on what are things that are distracting them in their everyday life. Are there things you know are misleading you, and yet you allow them to? Is your attention focused on one thing, when it could be going somewhere else?
Catch “Ride or Die” at The Blue Room Theatre, showing from 9-27 June. Click here for tickets.
