MAKE MINE A LATTE

There’s an old adage – write what you know, and up and coming playwright Christopher Sellers knows coffee. He knows how to make it, what he likes and doesn’t like when he’s ordering it, and how “having coffee” in Australia has become the daytime equivalent of nipping down the pub for a quick pint. It’s social, ritualistic, and even sometimes confessional.
Baristas are the new barmen – the relationship that is assumed during the two-to-three minute wait for that much-desired cup is often filled with talk that you would never have with the cashier at the supermarket or a clothes shop attendant.
“In Australia especially, there’s just this unconscious understanding that I can walk in and have this rapport with whoever’s around and that’s just the way we socialise here. If we were in New York or London it would be more the barman who’d shared your blues over a Scotch. Here it’s over flat white and cappuccinos. We make relationships, break relationships, and get to know each other over coffee.”
Sellers, a writer and actor, is currently presenting two short plays at Springboards Performing Arts in Annandale and the first play Coffee is a one-man affair delving into the life of a barista, exploring the person we turn to to put a spring in our step, to give our day that little bit of extra zing.
“It’s written with the theme that coffee in Australia really is a religion,” Sellers explains, “and this guy, by default, becomes the preacher, but at the same time is one of the congregation and is flawed like everybody else”.
As a writer appearing in his own work, Sellers says for him a work doesn’t really come alive until he presents it in front of an audience, in this case the first preview.
“Once you finally put a live audience in front of it, it becomes a whole different beast to work with. Especially the first one, because it’s a one-man show. I’m talking to empty chairs for two weeks [of rehearsal], then all of a sudden you’ve got people there who laugh and snicker and have a moment to themselves. For the pacing and enjoyment of the piece you have to allow for that.”
Sellers says those moments where an audience responds, whether by laughing or gasping in shock, are the moments that make walking out onstage the following night of a performance a little easier. But that doesn’t necessarily mean an audience responds when Sellers is expecting it.
“Because I’ve written both the pieces, unconsciously you write this line and then in your head you think, ‘Pause for laugh’ and then they don’t. But then I might be in the middle of something innocuous and they all have a chuckle and you go, ‘Oh, is that funny, is it?’ so you make a mental note of that and you allow for it.”
“And even other things – there’s a few moments in the second piece [called Time] of shock; a few people were taken aback. There was audible gasps so you realise that you have to take time here for them to hear the next part of the play, otherwise they won’t get what you’re trying to say. That’s a really satisfying process.”
And the worst cup of coffee Sellers has ever been served?
“I’ve only sent coffee back once in my life,” Sellers says with a chuckle. “I was on the Gold Coast. I wanted this nice breakfast so I went to this little restaurant/café on the beach. I asked for a double espresso and they just sent back a large, dirty hot water. I had my Bondi moment. I had my Rainman moment: “The grind’s wrong, the machine’s probably too hot, you haven’t packed it right.”
WHAT: Coffee / Time
WHERE & WHEN: Springboards Performing Arts, Annandale until Sunday 14 February