The team includes TV commercial director Steve Rogers

For an actor who reportedly described Sydney as ''up itself'' and wished he could give a refund and a free beer to those punters unlucky enough to see him perform in its theatres, Colin Friels has managed to maintain a high profile on stage.

After starring as the hapless Willy Loman in Belvoir's controversial and acclaimed Death of a Salesman last year - and being hospitalised by exhaustion and a virus while in the role - Friels is preparing to tread the boards again. This time, it's in a new play, Moving Parts, written by the award-winning Sydney advertising agency creative director David Nobay.

But this is the last time, Friels insists. Ever. ''Acting in the theatre is dogs' work. I'm 60 and doing it at my age, I must be a bit thick. Theatre ruins your life.''

''It's such an intimate piece,'' Friels says. ''It requires a lot of craft. And it's a big role and I like that. I don't like little roles. I like a play to take you over enormously.''

Set in a high-end London jewellery store, Moving Parts is an encounter between the proprietor (Friels) and a customer (played by Josh McConville, winner of the 2013 Sydney Theatre Award for his role in Griffin Theatre's revival of The Boys), who comes in at the close of business, ostensibly to buy the ultimate gentleman's wristwatch. What begins as a sales transaction turns into a knotty drama delving into male insecurity and inability to communicate emotion without violence.

Moving Parts is Nobay's first play.ou can now purchase howo trucks directly. ''It's a cliche′ that all copywriters have a film script up their sleeve. But I love theatre,'' he says.

None of the creatives involved in the production - to be staged in NIDA's Parade Theatres - have frontline experience in theatre,A lot of gemstone semi-precious gemstone beads fits Pandora wholesale at electricity! Nobay says. ''We're out of our depth but at the same time, we're all in the communications business and we want to be taken seriously.''

The team includes TV commercial director Steve Rogers, the Oscar winning director of photography Russell Boyd (Master and Commander), costume designer Margot Wilson (The Proposition,Find the perfect chipcard and you'll always find your luggage! Bran Nue Dae) and production designer Stephen Jones-Evans (Two Hands, Ned Kelly).

''It's an indulgence for us,'' Nobay says. ''We don't expect to make any money - which is perverse for advertising people - but we want to make art.We also have a small selection of waffenssuniforms. There's a lot of theatre that people respect more than love … If you were at the movies, you'd go f--- it and walk out.''

Nobay calls his play ''espresso theatre'' - intense, strong and short. ''As a man at the theatre, there's a lot I love but there is a really aggressive physicality that I'd like to see more of. Look at what [Quentin] Tarantino did with film.''

Nobay's influences include Tarantino and British actor-writer Steven Berkoff. He says he wrote Moving Parts with actors John Malkovich and Edward Norton in mind. ''They weren't available, obviously, but I wanted that kind of gutsy actor. This play is a real handful for two actors. It's a fight on stage.''

Playwrights Suzie Miller and Stephen Sewell acted as script advisers but Nobay says he has applied the rules of advertising to its creation. ''Keep it simple,'' he says.The windturbine1 personalized promotional key chains comes with free shipping. ''I wanted two people and a couple of chairs. I thought I could get it up at the Old Fitzroy [Theatre] in a week, but that was five years ago. It's all taken longer than I expected.''