SCENE Wellington - Issue 12 MARCH 2019

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OUR EDITOR A veteran of Wellington theatre, Sarah Delahunty is an award winning playwright. She has sought out these local productions that sparked her interest and hopes they spark yours too! You can contact Sarah via our Facebook page FACEBOOK.COM/SCENEWGTN

I SSUE 14 | M A RC H 2019 Imposter Child | Lord Bi-Ron: Mad, Bad & Dangerous | Summer Camps Look! I'm Blind! | The Mournmoor Murders

WGTN

ISSUE 14 MARCH 2019

IT'S FRINGE FESTIVAL TIME AGAIN. SO MUCH CREATIVITY IN ONE CITY! HERE'S SOME PICKS. IMPOSTER CHILD

The idea for this show came totally from the pun on the name. Aimee Smith, creator of this character, originally used him to combine poetry and drag at Gayshop Live 2018 . It wasn't hard to turn the five minute piece into an hour long show.

OIOI PRODUCTIONS Writer/Director Neenah Dekkers-Reihana Bats Theatre Thurs 7th - Mon 11th March 7:30pm TICKETS: $18/$14/$13 BOOKINGS: bats.co.nz

Byron was a great Romantic poet. Maybe the first “rock star” celebrity. And a passionate pursuer of both men and women. He's also the reason, Aimee thinks,“that we have such a love affair with dark, tragic, borderline sociopathic men - Heathcliff, Count Dracula, Han Solo and Jack Sparrow”. The expression “Byronic looks” apparently means dark, morose, sexy, unavailable. Heroes and villains. Ok, I get the type. Unfortunately.

Imposter syndrome - a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their accomplishments and has a persistent internalised fear of being exposed as a fraud.

JOSH DAVIES – LOOK! I'M BLIND!

BY JOSH DAVIES Cavern Club 22 Allen St. Tues 5th - Thurs 7th March 8pm Fri 8th, Sat 9th March 8:30pm TICKETS: $18/$14/$10 BOOKINGS: fringe.co.nz So yes, Josh Davies says there is a genuinely funny side to living with a disability.

“I think able bodied people believe those with a disability are incapable of living at all. That's so far from reality.

Regardless of who you are, you want to live life to the fullest. But the world is built for those who have nothing wrong with them, and most of them struggle in it regardless.That aspect of being the outsider is full of comedic potential.”

This is Josh's debut solo show. He's been performing comedy for the last three and a half years though, in Aotearoa/NZ and a bit overseas. Developing his skills and style.

He finds his own disability very easy to talk about.

“It's such a significant part of my life and who I am that it would be disingenuous to not talk about, I think.

The most nerve-wracking part is doing justice to the experiences of those with similar conditions. To do it in such a way that those people don't feel taken advantage of or misrepresented.”

And also the theme of this show, says director Neenah Dekkers-Reihana.“ Imposter Child is a surreal and theatrical take on the experience of living with imposter syndrome. We meet Anna Kiley, a 27-year-old actor, at an audition. She is early, she knows her lines, she has worked herself up and she is feeling confident. But nothing can prepare her for the invisible force that is Imposter Syndrome.”

So where did interest in this spring from? “Imposter syndrome is absurdly common. It seems everyone feels like a fraud at some point in their life. But a lot of people have never heard of the syndrome. Experts agree that what helps people deal with imposter syndrome is acknowledging it. Then it loses it's power. So what better way to start that journey than to put it on stage, light it up and make some noise?

“I've been lucky in my life to have people around me who encouraged me to seek help and look closer at my own mental health, in order to move forward and live better.

Creating theatre and art around that topic is a great way for me to feel positive about helping myself, even when it gets hard, because it gives me hope that I might be helping someone else too.”

Serious stuff. I ask how Neenah would describe the show. “ Surreal and creepy, but with some fresh beats and a lot of laughs.” All happening in a very small space? “I really like the intimacy of the Studio at Bats,” Neenah replies.

“I feel this show is perfect for the space - weird, internal, slightly uncomfortable - and hilarious.” Sold!

“Mad, bad and dangerous to know” - the real Lord Byron was born in 1788 and is considered one of England's great poets. From a quick Wiki search, his shortish life seems also to have been filled with rather a lot of debt and sleaze.

But it's the different ways they want to tell the Byron story that provides the discourse. The man himself wants to be the hero, while Nathan sees the uglier, more problematic bits.

So Nathan's looking for truth, while Bi-Ron tries to keep his legend alive - along with Heathcliff, Dracula, et al?

Good luck with that one, mate.

Did you know there used to be secret lesbian summer camps in Aotearoa /NZ during the 1970s and 80s? I certainly didn't and, probably unlike most who read this, I was actually alive then.

streets but fascinating individuals, plus “ a lot of bogs in people's yards – aka, the perfect place to hide a body...”.

I've come to view our predilection for murder as entertainment as pretty sick. Co-creator Maria Williams basically agrees.“ But I guess when you know it's not real and you're working out the mystery, it's very fascinating.

We approach it with humour, though. We like gags.” So Midsomer Murders meets Bojack Horseman apparently,(had to google that one). As a starting point.

In the lead-up to the Mournmoor Annual Ukulele Festival, a murder takes place. Two big-smoke detectives from Timaru come to interview the colourful locals. The local YouTube celeb/yoga teacher, the TAB owner, the mayor...

The inspiration came during a trip to Geraldine (a small South Island town near Timaru.) Also came an ambition to perform the show there. The combination of deserted

Writer Aimee Smith Director James Cain Bats Theatre Fri 8th - Tues 12th March 8:30pm TICKETS: $20/$15/$14 BOOKINGS: bats.co.nz

Writer Jadwiga Green Director Sabrina Martin Innermost Gardens 31 Lawson Pl Mt Victoria Thurs 14th - Sat 16th, Thurs 21st - Sat 24th March 6pm TICKETS: $10/$8/$7 BOOKINGS: fringe.co.nz

Someone qualified to speak, with something definitely worth hearing.

Writers Maria Williams and Alice May Connelly Bats Theatre Thurs 14th - Mon 18th March 7:30pm TICKETS: $16/$13/$12 BOOKINGS: bats.co.nz

PRESENTED BY: A MULLED WHINE

So how does that happen? “I'm looking at him through a feminist lens. There are places I can go that would maybe not work so well from a male performer. And Nathan is a “feminist ally”, trying super-hard but still your typical straight cis white dude in lots of ways. They both know a lot less than the bulk of their audience will, I imagine...”

KAMP THAT WAY COLLECTIVE

“So that what people laugh at isn't a play on words, it's the comedy that comes from understanding my perspective. That when the show is finished, not only will the audience have laughed a bunch, they will have heard a story they probably haven't heard before.”

THE MOURNMOOR ARTS COUNCIL

LORD BI-RON: MAD, BAD & DANGEROUS

It's been a collaborative process. Storyline starts with a student raising Byron from the dead to help with his uni essay. The student, Nathan, is also a musician. Bi Ron does some flashy drag numbers. Nathan sings it more like it is. And together they create some “intersectional feminist discourse”.

SUMMER CAMPS

He feels thats he's been the butt of “lazy disability jokes” - the easiest possible joke, usually ill- informed and based on stereotypes that are outright wrong. He thinks of his material as “hard- working disability jokes” - hopefully, giving insight and emotion to the situation.

THE MOURNMOOR MURDERS

But it's a comedy? “We've taken it in a very silly, overthe-top direction, leaning into that mythology and the glamour, fun, and humour of drag, rather than pretending it's a historical drama,” says Aimee. “But we also rip into the appeal of the Byronic hero. I can't imagine the real Byron would like it all that much.”

There are twenty-two characters played by Maria and partner in crime Alice May Connelly. They've watched a lot of crime shows. And realised that, as theatre has different resources from TV, they have to tell rather than show.“We have to move the plot along, have a character let the audience know what's happened.”

So the comedy comes from the genre, plus small town life - and stereotypical Kiwi characters? “Yes the stereotypes are part of the joke, although none of them are too dramatic... they're just the type of people we know from our lives, the type of person to start a ukulele band or be in the community musical, for example. And an old Scottish woman. I lived in Scotland and the bonnie Scottish lass has a place in my heart!”

Watch out, Geraldine...

It was a time when being “outed” could risk you losing your accommodation, your job, or your children, or see you ostracised by your friends and family.To counter this prejudice, the summer camps were started by a small collective of lesbians.

Writer Jadwiga Green discovered their existence when conducting an interview for a previous LGBTIA+-focused theatre production. And wanted to explore the camps in more detail. She's spent a lot of time with different lesbian groups round Aotearoa/NZ, recording and transcribing their stories. The collective is now in the process of bringing these stories to life through group devising, led by director Sabrina Martin.

Answers to my questions come from the group as a whole.

The angle? “ Summer Camps asks what was it like to create a space where people felt like they could discover their true selves, and how do we adapt this for a more modern viewpoint? We want to explore what it felt like to have a community actively band together to create a space for themselves, where people from different walks of life could meet and share ideas?”

we also address the current conflicts between TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) and transgender people and their allies. We think it's important to learn the stories of our elders and gain insight into what needs to change.”

I ask about the venue - one I haven't heard of before?

“Innermost Gardens is a hall, not unlike the kind that the women would have used for their camps, surrounded by lawns and gardens. They were a space where lesbians could step outside the dominant culture and imagine a different one. We want to give our audience this same experience.”

Sounds like something the dominant culture could benefit from.

Is the solidarity, created by the need for secrecy, harder to find today?

“We believe the need for secrecy did build solidarity within the lesbian community, but there was definitely also in-fighting and dissension. We're not suggesting that the past was better or more unified, there was a lot of exclusion in the summer camps which make aspects of them pretty problematic for our collective. In our show

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