Which Way Home is Katie Beckett's heartfelt tribute to a much-loved dad (2024)

  • Culture
  • Theatre
  • What’s on

This was published 7 years ago

By Elissa Blake

Updated

,

register

or subscribe

to save articles for later.

Save articles for later

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.

Playwright and actor Katie Beckett wrote her new play Which Way Home in a hurry. It felt urgent. If she didn't get a move on, there was a chance her dad, Les, whose parenting inspired Beckett to write the play, wouldn't live to see it.

"Dad's had that many heart attacks … it scared me," says Beckett sitting next to a chipper-looking Les in Belvoir's rehearsal room. "I don't know how many times he could have died on me when I was growing up. So I wanted to leave him something so he knew how much I loved him and the only way I could do that was by writing a play."

Which Way Home is Katie Beckett's heartfelt tribute to a much-loved dad (1)

Les parented Beckett, her sister and her two brothers on his own after their mother died in a car accident. Beckett was only five at the time.

Now 32, Beckett still relies on her 68-year-old dad on a daily basis. He picks up his grandson Mark, 7, from school and helps around the house while Beckett is busy acting (she's just finished a season at Griffin), working on her Balnaves Foundation Award-winning script, Severed Cord, and reviving Which Way Home for its Sydney debut during the Sydney Festival. "When I come home from rehearsals, dad's got the dinner ready, the clothes washed. He even bought me a new vacuum cleaner!" says Beckett.

Which Way Home is an affectionate, semi-autobiographical tribute to Les as a parent and to Indigenous dads more generally – men who have been singled out for all manner of comment since the publishing of Bill Leak's now infamous cartoon in The Australian.

"The plays gives people an inside look at Aboriginal men and how they really can cope and do quite a good job with their children," says Les. "People might see Aboriginal men in a different light and understand. It's a play about unconditional love."

The play takes the form of a road trip comedy-drama, with father (played by Tony Briggs) and daughter (Beckett) driving from suburban Ipswich, Queensland, to the small town of Goodooga, near Lightning Ridge, NSW, from where the Beckett family hails.

"It's lots of fun. It's people stuck in a car," Beckett says. "They can't get away from each other, so they push each other's buttons. We actually did that trip from Ipswich to Goodooga, didn't we dad?"

Les chuckles.

Advertisement

The play includes flashbacks and anecdotes, as well as on-the-road drama. One memorable incident was the time Les wanted to make his youngest son a sandpit.

"So we pulled over and he started stealing local council sand!" Beckett says. "And because he had drummed it into my head that if you stole something, the police would come and get you, I freaked out. It was the scariest thing in the world for me. I'm hiding under the seat."

"I told her to keep an eye out to see if any cars were coming while I'm shovelling sand into the boot of the Ford," says Les. "I said, it's our land, it's our dirt."

Les says he and his daughter are best friends. Beckett says Les is, "annoying, frustrating, loving, embarrassing".

"He tells dad jokes all the time, he thinks he's funny," Beckett says. "This one time he came to my primary school and pretended to be the new teacher, in front of everybody. Everyone was like, oh my god, your dad is so funny. And I was like, oh crap, why can't you be a normal dad? I was 9."

Les is also a shocking flirt, says Beckett. "He flirts with women all the time."

"No I don't!" says Les.

"You do," Beckett replies. "He even went out on a couple of dates last week. He even chatted up a woman on the bus!"

Les has yet to see his theatricalised self in Which Way Home. While the play was on in Melbourne, he was babysitting. He's glad Briggs is returning to play the role, however.

"There were a couple of other Aboriginal fellas who could have got the part but I'm glad they didn't because they're not good looking enough and Tony is."

Which Way Home plays at Belvoir from January 11-29, part of the Sydney Festival.

,

register

or subscribe

to save articles for later.

License this article

  • What’s on

Most Viewed in Culture

Loading

Which Way Home is Katie Beckett's heartfelt tribute to a much-loved dad (2024)

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Dr. Pierre Goyette

Last Updated:

Views: 6230

Rating: 5 / 5 (70 voted)

Reviews: 93% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Dr. Pierre Goyette

Birthday: 1998-01-29

Address: Apt. 611 3357 Yong Plain, West Audra, IL 70053

Phone: +5819954278378

Job: Construction Director

Hobby: Embroidery, Creative writing, Shopping, Driving, Stand-up comedy, Coffee roasting, Scrapbooking

Introduction: My name is Dr. Pierre Goyette, I am a enchanting, powerful, jolly, rich, graceful, colorful, zany person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.