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Real-life drama for Sea Patrol's Jay Ryan and Kirsty Lee Allan

SEA Patrol's Jay Ryan found himself in the centre of a real-life water drama recently, when he and co-star Kirsty Lee Allan got caught up in a potentially fatal whirlpool.

A stunt goes wrong and the lives of two actors hang in the balance as they desperately struggle to keep their heads above water.

Sounds like a cornball Hollywood script but it was a real life drama for Sea Patrol's Jay Ryan recently.

Filming series two of Channel 9's hit drama, Ryan and co-star Kirsty Lee Allan were caught up in a potentially deadly whirlpool - in shark-infested waters, no less.

"We were meant to be pretending to drown but every time we came up for air, we were getting sucked back under again, I started getting a bit worried, thinking, 'Am I acting here or actually drowning?'," he said.

"The stunties jumped in to get us out but they were getting sucked under too. It was pretty hairy.

"We all had a stiff drink that night."

Ryan is hoping his new project is a little less dangerous.

He's enlisted Sea Patrol co-star and good buddy Jeremy Lindsay Taylor to direct him in his play The Packer.

The one-man show, which begins at the Old Fitzroy Theatre on April 20, is a black comedy, set in New Zealand featuring eight characters.

Ryan has performed six seasons in the past five years, so he was looking for someone to inject some new ideas into the production.

"In a one-man show you need someone to bounce off," he explained.

But surely one buddy directing another is asking for trouble?

"It's been a dream run," Taylor said, "Not even one tiff."

The pair even went on a "research trip" to New Zealand, to see where the play is based.

"It was like a boy's weekend away," Ryan laughed. "We're both bogans from way back - we love drinking beer and making theatre."

March 31, 2008
Herald Sun