There was a time when writer Stephen Vagg’s friends were all leaving Brisbane. Then there was a time when, like him, they were all coming back to town.

He has written plays about both … one which was staged in 2000 and another which is on soon. All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane was the first and it was followed by a 2007 film of the same name starring former Home and Away star Charlotte Gregg and, among others, a rising local actor in Gyton Grantley. With its Brisbane locales and talent it was ahead of its time.

Now that he and his wife film director Louise Alston and their eight-year-old daughter Kathleen are ensconced back in the river city it was worth revisiting that original idea resulting in a sequel, All My Friends Are Returning to Brisbane. Before coming home the trio was in Los Angeles for a while, which suited Vagg as a screenwriter (he’s currently a script editor for Neighbours) and Alston, who works as a film director.

“Louise directed the film All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane,” Vagg says.

They were in Los Angeles for a few years “trying to crack it in America”. Then the pandemic hit and they relocated to New Farm (via the Sunshine Coast briefly) where they are reportedly very happy indeed, living in the city that everyone used to leave.

“I wrote the play during Covid,” Vagg says. “I reconnected with old friends. When I made the film, everyone had left and when I came home everyone was back.”

Which meant it was time to bookend the story with a play about that set largely in New Farm and the CBD, although some of the characters live at Brookfield, which seems only fair since Vagg grew up in Brisbane’s leafy west, namely Bellbowrie and Toowong.

Vagg, 50, attended Brisbane Grammar School, went on to study law at UQ and worked in the legal profession in the city for a couple of years after university.

“But I think I knew from day one that was a mistake,” Vagg says. “Although it did give me material. The new play is set in the legal world because that’s a world I know. The other world I know is TV but I didn’t want to set it in the land of TV, although there are some jokes about that.”

The play is presented by Vagg and Anywhere Festivals, which is run by Paul Osuch, a pal and the director of the first play. The new 90-minute production is being staged in a very Brisbane location, the Fringe Brisbane Festival building which most of us know as the old headquarters for Stefan in South Brisbane.

“The play is about the lead character, Anthea, returning to Brisbane after a decade away in London,” Vagg says. “She finds that some things about her hometown have changed while other things are very much the same. We did a one-off reading of it last year at Fringe Brisbane and it went really well. It sold out.”

The play is written and directed by Vagg who points out that his mate Paul Osuch was too busy to do it this time around. He wanted either Osuch or his wife Louise to helm it but Louise was too busy with her day job.

“She was busy directing a film in Oklahoma,” he says. The lengths some people will go to.

The film version was nominated for an AFI Award and now a TV series of All My Friends Are Returning to Brisbane is not out of the question. Vagg is the person to do that having written extensively for the screen, including a stint on Home and Away and a long association with Neighbours.

He says the film All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane enabled him to be a professional writer with credits including working as a script producer on the successful Nickelodeon series, Rock Island Mysteries, shot on the Gold Coast.

Some of the original cast are back for the new play. Tammy Tresillian who plays Kath, was in the original production and reprises the role this time around. Tim Jackman was in the original stage play too, although he plays a different role now. Added to the mix are Simon Chugg, Marcus Oborn, Jaz Robertson, Sharnee Tones (as Anthea) and Willem Whitfield. Vagg proudly reports that it is all local talent.

So, what’s next? All My Children Are Leaving Brisbane? Not yet he hopes.

All My Friends Are Returning to Brisbane, November 30 to December 3, Anywhere Fringe Brisbane Festival building, 23 Manning St, South Brisbane

anywhere.is

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