The unconventional rom-com Capricorn is written and directed by Butchulla and Kabi Kabi writer Aidan Rowlingson, and follows the trajectory of ill-fated lovers Sam and Ally, taking both protagonists’ points of view, as well as that of their pet fish, Here Fishy Fishy Fishy.

Rowlingson worked at La Boîte as a producer before going on to other roles with QPAC and the Queensland Music Festival. He’s thrilled to finally see his debut play through to appearing on stage, overcoming four years of covid interruptions to finally bring it to fruition.

“I think this play, you could sit down and you could watch it as a tragedy or you could sit down and you can watch it with this hindsight of going, oh gosh, that was all a little bit ridiculous, wasn’t it?” Rowlingson said.

“All the humour and all the tragedy is kind of grounded and starts from this place of truth. And so everything’s a little bit bittersweet.

“And I think that the audience will walk away with this experience of finding the humour in something that we all thought was really tragic in the moment. The loss of love or the heartbreak. It matters to us in the moment.

“And then I think when we have the hindsight and we have a lot of distance, we kind of look back and we are like, I can’t believe I threw my whole self into that. It all seems bit silly.”

Capricorn follows the fractured trajectory of a relationship in decline and asks whether it is possible to love someone and hate them at the same time.

Rowlingson said it’s been fascinating watching the work evolve, particularly now as actors breathe new life into the work.

“I think the beauty of the organic process is so many other people have been involved in the creation of this work and they’ve all brought their stories and their experiences with love and heartache and all those kind of very human things,” he said.

“We’ve really been able to create something that I think speaks to a lot of different people.

“It’s funny enough that in the world of the play, there’s the goldfish disappearing and just the way that the world and the news reacts to it. I wrote that before the pandemic happened and so it’s really wild just kind of sitting back and watching everything unfold at the same time.”

This is the second show in 2023 from new La Boite Artistic Director Courtney Stewart who has put her own distinctive stamp on the program from her first days in the job. It also marks Rowlingson’s mainstage directorial debut.

Stewart is hoping her courageous programming will challenge people to rethink what the Australian canon of work can look like.

“Aiden is I think an incredibly exciting voice. I feel like he is a young artistic leader in the making and he’s got an incredible story to tell. So I felt really excited to jump on that one,” Stewart said.

“I knew Aidan’s writing would have wide appeal to audiences with a range of lived experiences and relationship constellations.”

While Capricorn centres on the relationship at its heart, that hasn’t stopped Rowlingson from taking on bigger issues such as institutional corruption and police power in the play, bringing a First Nations perspective to these societal issues.

“What we’re trying to do with the work is kind of have this idea about these things matter. Being a First Nations person matters to these characters,” he said.

“Being queer matters to these characters. Environmentalism and taking care of country and institutional corruption are all big things that matter to these characters.

“I think audiences will be very surprised about the way we present Indigeneity in this work. I think we very much come from the position of our existence is powerful and just our day-to-day stories and our lives is political as well.

“This is a very Aboriginal work, but at the same time it’s not about being Aboriginal. And so I think I’m very excited to see people’s interpretation of how we deal with certain stuff around culture and returning to country and sorry business and all those kind of cultural aspects that play a part in our lives.

“But in the same vein as the political side of the work, is those are just things that are part of us – that’s not the crux of the story.”