{"id":821986,"date":"2026-07-25T01:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T01:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/821986\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T01:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T01:14:14","slug":"break-of-day-by-steve-rodgers-kat-stewart-stars-in-play-that-might-just-be-australias-answer-to-death-of-a-salesman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/821986\/","title":{"rendered":"Break of Day by Steve Rodgers: Kat Stewart stars in play that might just be Australia\u2019s answer to Death of a Salesman"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When actor Kat Stewart and director Sarah Goodes were hunting for a script to collaborate on, they started with the classics. \u201cThe usual suspects, the Albees, who I adore, Tennessee Williams, a couple of Sam Shepard plays,\u201d says Stewart. \u201cThe recurring theme was the American dream, the heartbreak or the disappointment of the American dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then Goodes brought in Break of Day, a script by veteran actor and playwright Steve Rodgers. A heartfelt and moving ode to the dreams and disappointments of ordinary yet recognisable people, it felt like an Australian version of those US classics. \u201cWhy aren\u2019t we exploring that?\u201d Stewart asked. \u201cThis is real. This is right now. And this is what we\u2019re not shining a light on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cThis\u201cThis is real. This is right now,\u201d says Kat Stewart about Break of Day.Sulamain Enayatzada<\/p>\n

Stewart plays Pam, a single mother barely making ends meet by pulling the night shift at one of those gargantuan warehouses that ship every product imaginable 24 hours a day. The customer unboxing their new smoothie machine or beard trimmer or yoga ball never spares a thought for the many hands that got it there. Pam is one member of that invisible army.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"L-R<\/a><\/p>\n

As in Arthur Miller\u2019s Death of a Salesman, this isn\u2019t the life our protagonist envisioned. Pam juggles her night work alongside caring for her wildly incapable dad and her 17-year-old daughter Rae. She\u2019s devoted most of her adult life to giving her daughter chances she never had, but has reached a point of crisis: to give Rae those opportunities, she has to let her go.<\/p>\n

Stewart has two kids of her own, so she can connect with how conflicted Pam must be. \u201cShe\u2019s made her life all about elevating Rae,\u201d she says. \u201cShe\u2019s on that really interesting cusp, which I\u2019m dreading, where Rae\u2019s doing year 12 and she\u2019s got so much potential. She\u2019s about to leave the nest and start making her own decisions, which leaves Pamela at a real pressure point where she\u2019s working out who she is in that context and how she can best look after her beautiful girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

In putting her daughter first, Pam doesn\u2019t know who she would become if Rae does end up leaving. Her lack of self-identity is only compounded by the way her job is designed to depersonalise workers, hide them from public view. All of these factors mean that Pam finds herself facing a dilemma familiar to many women as they age: she feels she\u2019s growing invisible.<\/p>\n

If Pam\u2019s circumstances sound grim, Rodgers\u2019 handling is a reminder that Australian humour thrives under pressure. \u201cWhat really rang true for me in Stevie\u2019s writing is the humour of it and the way Australians talk,\u201d Stewart says. \u201cWe use humour to deflect. We\u2019re really great at that. It\u2019s our armour.\u201d<\/p>\n

The armour that Pam has donned is the kind that\u2019s instantly recognisable. \u201cShe\u2019s really funny,\u201d says Stewart. \u201cShe\u2019s dry and she\u2019s tough, but she\u2019s funny. She takes the piss out of [her boss] Sunny a lot, but they\u2019re really dear old friends. And she\u2019s got a fraught relationship with her dad, but they really like doing quiz shows together on telly.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the reasons Break of Day brings to mind those classic American plays is in the way it humanises its characters, warts and all. Pam makes decisions that are questionable, though we never doubt the motivations behind them.<\/p>\n

\u201cPam\u2019s not a saint,\u201d says Stewart. \u201cShe\u2019s not exceptional. But we\u2019re all on our own hero\u2019s journey, trying to map things out as best we can and make the best decisions we can. I always work with the adage that it\u2019s impossible to hate a person whose story you know. At the beginning people will make assumptions about Pamela, but hopefully by the end they will see her in a more complete and compassionate way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodgers\u2019 script stipulates that the production be set in a satellite city, the kind of semi-regional urban centre that is itself often overlooked by outsiders. We\u2019re more accustomed to romanticised portraits of rural Australia or gritty dramas set on the streets of a bustling metropolis. It\u2019s less common to see a play set somewhere in between.<\/p>\n

Which is, coincidentally, not dissimilar to the town where Stewart grew up. \u201cIt\u2019s bigger now, but in those days Bairnsdale\u2019s population was about 10,000,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s what rang true for me, the vernacular humour, the way the characters talk to each other. They\u2019re voices that I grew up around and still hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart lived in Bairnsdale until she was 14. She understands Rae\u2019s ambivalence, torn between the lure of city life and the familiar world that\u2019s all she has ever known.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cStevie\u201cStevie has written something that\u2019s kind of like a love song to the unseen workers,\u201d says Kat Stewart.Simon Schluter<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to leave. The whole family left, so I had to, but I left kicking and screaming. I loved it and I had great friends there. I understood that there was a bigger world and that this might be the best thing for the family but I didn\u2019t want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Playwright<\/a><\/p>\n

The kinds of warehouses Pam works at are often built in towns that are economically depressed, and so they give rise to another kind of ambivalence. They can put huge demands on employees, but they\u2019re also providing work to regions that sorely need it. \u201cThis warehouse would be the lifeblood of this town, you know?\u201d says Stewart.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t poverty porn: the playwright himself has worked in such a warehouse, and there\u2019s a real authenticity to the details that are littered throughout the script. It\u2019s less about grand tragedy and more about the quiet frustrations that the cost of living today invokes in most of us.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have so much respect for these characters and I feel so protective of Pamela\u2019s dignity,\u201d says Stewart. \u201cStevie has written something that\u2019s kind of like a love song to the unseen workers. To family and to sacrifice and to yearning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Break of Day is at Malthouse Theatre from August 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-821986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}