This play had me at hello.

Seriously when Jonathan Wald asked me to read it I was immersed in ʻMY PARISʼ a solo theatre piece that I had written, produced and was performing at The Old 505 Theatre for The Sydney Fringe Festival. I was wearing a lot of hats & making time to sit down and read another play seemed challenging.

Here I am now three weeks into the Reginald Theatreʼs Sydney Season of God’s Ear and I feel so honoured to be part of such a wonderful cast and company. It’s great driving into the theatre every night to perform this play. I have worked at the Seymour Centre in nearly every department as a casual staff member on & off for about nine years. The Seymour Centre has been very good to me over the years between acting and voice over gigs to keep me employed and I consider them a family here in Sydney. So to be able to work as an actor on the Seymour boards has been a dream come true.

God’s Ear is a unique piece. A lot of writers claim to be original but Jenny Schwartz actually is. Her linguistic word play has been a game I love participating in. Literature lovers will relish God’s Ear. The bed of the play is the family of Ted his wife Mel, their daughter Lanie and their son Sam. Their son Sam has drowned, this essentially is their grieving period.

I play Lenora, a “super-loquacious” divorcee who Ted meets at a lounge. Lenora becomes Ted’s love interest, an escape from the reality of the grief he is experiencing.

It’s a testament to our company of how seriously we all take the work that most of us are rocking up for an 8 o’clock show two hours before curtain up. We all want to be there. We all believe the play’s the thing. We want the audience to have an incredible experience in the theatre and with the punter’s responding to us so positively post performance every night in the foyer I think we are achieving that.

I looked at my co actors the other night and recognized in them that we are walking talking works of art created during the rehearsal and tech period with Jonathan and all the wonderful crew;  Jo, Matt,  Steve,  Joss and Lucinda . Now in the run here we are diving in and getting wet again immersing ourselves in this wonderful piece. I feel happy, proud and humbled to be part of this ship.

Helen OʼLeary aka Lenora…

God’s Ear runs till this Saturday, 3 December. For more information or to book visit the seymour website.