| State of play |
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| Monday, 24 November 2008 23:18 |
 Part two of our exploration of Melbourne’s indie theatre scene. By Richard Watts.Melbourne’s independent theatre scene has flourished for much of this decade. Venues such as La Mama and The Storeroom championed the staging of innovative new works, supporting new playwrights and theatre companies such as Stuck Pigs Squealing, Theatre @ Risk and Theatre in Decay. But a few years ago, all that changed. The Storeroom stopped programming new seasons of work; and many of the individuals whose companies were integral to the early noughties’ new wave of theatre-making moved on, their priorities having changed due to the demands of their careers or their personal lives. Even the way in which theatre is being created today is changing, according to Vanessa Pigrum, the manager of the Full Tilt program at the Arts Centre. “There’s this explosion of work that is in a different, shorter, more transportable form; that sits within a club setting, or an installation setting … The form is changing to more bite-sized, free or short shows that you do six times in one night,” she tells CANVAS. While Pigrum comprehends the reasons driving such changes (including the time it takes to develop a major theatre work, and the prohibitive cost of renting a venue in which to stage it), she’s concerned about the impact on young artists’ careers. “I think you need to be working in both short form and long form to have a sustainable career,” Pigrum says. “And that’s the unknown thing. How do those artists ever get the practise and make the leap into making longer form work?” Theatre critic Alison Croggon, however, sees the embracing of short-form works by Melbourne’s younger theatre-makers as a return to theatre’s roots. “Those kinds of impulses, which are anti-theatre impulses, if you like, are always an attempt to go back to basics, like, ‘What is this act called theatre and where can it be?’ and so on. That’s a fairly recognisable response, I think; a back to basics kind of thing, which I think is a very healthy kind of impulse.” That said, Croggon is quick to confirm that Melbourne’s theatre sector has undergone significant changes in recent years. “One of the things that’s happened is that, in the past few years, the theatre scene has been changed irrevocably by the changes in mainstream, or main stage theatre; and that’s changed expectations, it’s changed all the rules about what’s expected,” she says. “I think that all the things that people used to react against really aren’t there any more, certainly not in the same way. Instead of just trying to react to conventional, naturalistic theatre, the endless stuff at the MTC … what’s conventional now is a very different kind of theatre; and probably you’ll see people reacting against that and away from that, hopefully in interesting ways.” One company whose work is avowedly non-naturalistic is The Suitcase Royale, a trio of Melbourne theatre-makers whose productions, including Chronicles of a Sleepless Moon and The Ghosts of Rickett’s Hill, display a lo-fi, junkyard aesthetic. Comprising Joseph O’Farrell, Glen Walton and Miles O’Neill, The Suitcase Royale have turned their backs on theatrical conventions, even technically, choosing to work without a lighting rig, or even a lighting designer; controlling all aspects of the performance themselves. “It definitely feels like there’s some resurgence of energy in the [local] theatre realm, and an acceptance – or reacceptance perhaps – of DIY theatre aesthetic and method,” Walton says. While O’Farrell shares this opinion (“I think the opportunities here are incredible compared to any other city in Australia”) he’s also somewhat more critical of some elements of the local theatre sector. “I think sometimes I have an issue with theatre-makers in Melbourne. They seem to expect that someone’s going to pick up after them, that perhaps they’re owed something; whereas I think just being a theatre maker in general is about being smart, because there are so many opportunities around, especially if you just use your head. Melbourne is quite accessible at the moment,” O’Farrell says. Certainly for The Suitcase Royale, “It’s not about getting a director together, and a lighting engineer and a venue and all that sort of stuff,” Walton says, “it’s more about just getting a show that we can do by ourselves and putting it anywhere we can.” One such place is The Old Bar, in Johnston Street, Fitzroy, where a loosely-affiliated collective of Melbourne artists and actors have created a supportive environment where creative risk-taking is not just encouraged, but almost mandatory. While the short-work form has been championed by festivals such as Melbourne Fringe and Next Wave if it has a home in Melbourne, it’s here, at the monthly event known as The Last Tuesday Society, the brainchild of Bron Batten and Richard Higgins. “I’m not interested in theatre. I’m becoming less interested in theatre, more disappointed by theatre in certain venues, fourth wall theatre and realism. The burlesque scene that burgeoned here, I find a lot of that stuff not that interesting politically, and a lot of performance art stuff is not that interesting either. So we wanted to be something else,” Higgins says. That ‘something else’ has fast become one of the most exciting performance nights in Melbourne. So how did it happen? “We knew a lot of visual artists and performance artists, and it was kind of just a way to get our friends doing stuff. And now we’ve got performers approaching us,” says Batten. “It’s a forum for the alternative. It’s not a stand-up night, it’s not an open mike night, it’s not performance art. I think we’ve created something that appeals to a niche audience. “Not everyone is going to appreciate a Russian opera singer singing a country song. They’re not necessarily going to get it, but we want to find the people who get do.” “I’ll do this until there is no breath left in my body.” - Bernie Banton (Ex-James Hardie employee, sufferer of asbestosis and mesothelioma) This fast paced, multi-media theatre production is an opportunity to peek into the average home presented as a sideshow and come on an almighty journey. Visit a place in the not too distant past where domestic products like toothpaste, playdough, hair dryers, and cigarette filters were all made with asbestos. Have you checked your shed? Did you check the electric blanket, and the surgical thread? Written and Directed by Donna Jackson Now in its fourth year at the Arts Centre, the annual Short + Sweet 10-minute theatre competition is so much more than just convenient theatre. It’s like a dynamic theatrical incubator bursting with fantastic entertainment. This year 40 shortlisted scripts will be transformed into fully produced 10-minute treats of original theatre, with another 10 works produced in a special week dedicated to Independent Theatre Ensembles. |