ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY
Fever103 Theatre acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands on which we create art and performance, the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurring people of the Eastern Kulin nation, and pay respect to elders past and present, and to any first nations people here with us tonight.
It is a privilege to live and work on lands that are enriched by a history of thousands of years of storytelling.
Always was, always will be aboriginal land.
NOTES FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT
I have been in love with secret societies for as long as I can remember. There is something delightfully mischievous about them the lamplit meetings at midnight, the endless bread and wine consumed by hungry young (and not-so-young) rebels, and a general air of distrust and disrespect for authority which makes you want to punch the air and cheer. So when I read about the very real exploits of the Night Climbers of Cambridge in a 1937 edition of the unimaginatively-titled The Night Climbers of Cambridge I was enchanted by its cheerfully anarchic gaggle of boys, hauling themselves up gothic architecture by sheer willpower and a few conveniently-placed gargoyles
But beneath this gleeful rebellion was the underlying pulse of the climbers’ good fortune: they were white, rich, English and male in a world where those four things were the very best things to be As I read The Night Climbers of Cambridge, I looked for female students within their pages: they borrowed a skirt from one, for a prank in which they dressed up and scaled the women’s-only Newnham College; on a separate occasion, during a particularly bad climbing accident, one of them crashed through a skylight into a woman’s room
I thought of the irrepressible girls in the boarding-school stories I read while growing up: girls who were hungry and cheeky and slightly too enthusiastic; girls who were almost always placidly married off by the end of the series, at which point the book closed on them with an ominous thud I wondered what it would have been like to be a woman at a university which only grudgingly acknowledged your existence. What it would have been like for a friend to borrow your skirt for an adventure and not invite you along for the journey And I wondered more sinister now what it would have been like to have a man crash, like Icarus in plimsolls, through the skylight uninvited, in the dead of night while you were sleeping.
I’d like to warmly thank our extraordinary cast and crew for coming on this adventure with us, all the way from accents to acrobatics (I promise to never include "she effortlessly leaps from the balcony to the rooftop" in my stage directions again); the wonderful cast and crew of 2019’s season at Monash Uni Student Theatre, especially the mentorship of Yvonne Virsik and Jason Lehane; Dr. Fiona Gregory from Monash University who supervised the historical research of this play, and, finally, Fever103’s founders Monique Marani and Harry Dowling, who have been here with me since the beginning and treated this show with the utmost care and love.
Climbers is the culmination of two years’ research looking at the way we write about women’s coming of age stories in historical contexts It’s about a society teetering on the precipice of radical change and war and clinging desperately to tradition. It’s about the first moment as a young woman that something heart-stoppingly awful happens to you, and you realise there are no adults coming to help.
But it’s also about joy, and love, and friendship. It’s about speaking out, even if the only sound you can make is a whisper It’s about stargazing, and adventuring, and poetry, and the messy, traumatic, glorious, terrifying journey of growing up and taking your place in the wide world.
Elly D'ArcyNOTES FROM THE DIRECTOR
““Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind ”
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s OwnThere is a certain quality to the conversations we have when we are young that resist capture- call it summer, call it spring, call it the vague blue of midnight as bare feet clamber rooftops. They are conversations scored by stars, borrowed whisky, and a certain invulnerable imagination They are poetry
If youth is the season of poetry and possibility, then it is also the season of permanence- at no other age are we so apt to believe that our sensitivities, ideas, partings, heartbreak, and resolves are the last of their kind. Every crisis and every tenderness seems final, simply because it is new. There is magic in this because- as poetry does- it invokes a reverence for living. I have not come across a text that captures this sense of poetry quite like Climbers, stakes a claim on its importance, and insists that a magical life is a human right.
We begin this show in a world where that magical landscape of Art and Language has been stifled by existing power structures It is a world where only old men with holes in their sleeves teach the books that only young, wealthy, protected men write. And yet, when the house lights come up, we leave this world having witnessed a young woman pocket the magic and bravely begin to contribute her first verse.
When I think about the theatre I want to make, I imagine the theatre I would like my younger sister to see. What I hope is that Climbers extends a radical hospitality to women like her, alongside an assurance that life is magical, and an insistence that when we raise our voices, it is our right to this magic that we are fighting for.
Few would say that the value of Art inheres in making something happen in the world. But a poem is written for two audiences: the one it may create, whose conversation it invites; and the one that has created it, whose conversation it invokes
This is why it is worth scaling rooftops for When marginalised voices co-opt the rooftops that have only belonged to the elite, they insist not only on their right to a voice, but on their right to create magic; a life worthy of reverence They insist upon magic being universal
This is what I would like young women to know.
This astonishingly ambitious show would not have been made possible without the uncompromising devotion of this band of poets Thank you for bringing your souls to the room each day – for you I am so grateful Thank you especially to Elly D’Arcy; for your courage to put this story into language, and for the unwavering support you have given myself and this extraordinary team throughout this process
Finally: I must thank the voices that haunt this show who spoke when they were silenced: bless those shameless women Bless their shameless bodies and their shameless, shameless tongues To them we owe the poetry we have, and the voices with which we write our own.
Monique Marani
IN REHEARSAL
Images by Harrison Baker
CREATIVE TEAM
ELLY D'ARCY (she/her) - WRITER
Elly D'Arcy is an emerging playwright, director, and dramaturg. Credits include Ramona Glasgow (Shrew Loose/Gasworks, 2022), Home and Other Mysteries (MUST, 2022), The Love of the Nightingale (Theatreworks, 2021), Romeo and Juliet (Fresh Theatre, 2021), Janis: The Life and Soul of a Rock Legend (Wild Tongues/Adelaide Fringe Festival 2019), Climbers (MUST, 2019; Fever103, 2023) and Any Sugar (Shrew Loose/MICF 2019). She completed her Bachelor of Arts with Honours in 2019 at Monash University's Centre for Theatre and Performance. Elly lives on beautiful Boon Wurrung country and has an ambivalent relationship with the jellyfish in Port Philip Bay An anonymous mystery shopper review once described her as 'kind but frazzled'
MONIQUE MARANI (she/her) - DIRECTOR
Monique is an award winning writer, director, and performer from Melbourne, Australia. As co-founder and Artistic Director of Fever103 Theatre, she has directed the company’s productions of Callum Mackay’s 'Brittany & the Mannequins' (NTHAC, 2022) and Treats (Southbank Theatre, 2021). Monique’s own original play, Tranquility Base, is also slated to be presented in 2023 As a performer, Monique’s independent credits include Kill Climate Deniers (MUST/MPAC), For The Love of the Nightingale (Theatre works), and Chaddyslap! (Melbourne Fringe). Monique’s poetry has been internationally published both online and in print. Selected publications include the 2022 Aurora Poets’ Anthology, Allegory Ridge, Lighthouse Magazine, and FrockUp Press she was thrilled to have been shortlisted for the 2021 Lane Cove National Literary Award.
HARRY DOWLING (he/him) - PRODUCER & PRODUCTION MANAGER
Harry is a Creative Producer and Arts Manager who is passionate about closely collaborating with artists to bring challenging and inspiring contemporary work to fruition He co-founded Fever103 Theatre, where he has been Creative Producer & Head of Production since the company's inception in 2020 and overseen all company activities to date Harry also works extensively as a freelance production and stage manager. Recent highlights include Looking For Alibrandi (Malthouse/Belvoir), Nosferatu, Grey Arias (Malthouse), A Nightime Travesty (Yirramboi), Distortion (Western Edge) and Kill Climate Deniers (MUST/MPAC). He has worked broadly in the independent sector with companies such as Melbourne Shakespeare Company, Victorian Theatre Company and Platform Arts. Harry is a graduate of Monash university with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Theatre & Performance, where he was regularly involved with the Monash Uni Student Theatre whilst completing his studies.
CREATIVE TEAM
JUSTIN GARDAM (he/him) - SOUND DESIGNER
Justin Gardam is an award-winning sound and video designer. He is a graduate of Monash University’s Bachelor of Performing Arts and completed a Master of Dramaturgy at the Victorian College of the Arts. Highlights of his design work include Laurinda (Melbourne Theatre Company); The Meeting, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Lamb, Control and Wakey Wakey (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre); Paradise Lost, Bad News and The Nose (Bloomshed); Everyone is Famous, The Lockdown Films and F. (Riot Stage). In 2020, Justin won a Green Room Award for Sound Design and Composition for The Market is a Wind-Up Toy at Theatre Works He has received a further five Green Room Award nominations.
SAVANNA WEGMAN (she/they) - SET & COSTUME DESIGNER
Savanna Wegman is a multidisciplinary designer, director and writer She is New Zealand born, of Chinese Malaysian and Dutch descent and is now based in Naarm (Melbourne). Recent performance design credits include: Set Designer 'A Certain Mumble' (Darebin Arts Speakeasy), Set/Costume Designer ‘Brittany and The Mannequins’ (Fever103 Theatre, Green Room Nominated for Best Set/Costume Design), Associate Designer 'The Crocodile' (fortyfivedownstairs), ‘The Mermaid’ (La Mama), AudioVisual Designer ‘Kill Climate Deniers’ (Monash Uni Student Theatre), Associate Designer ‘The Dream Laboratory’ (Essential Theatre), AudioVisual Production Designer ‘WE ARE AIR’ (Melbourne Fringe), Assistant Stage Manager ‘The Invisible Opera’ (RISING Festival), Malthouse Assistant Stage Management internship 'My Dearworthy Darling’ (THE RABBLE). Savanna is Co-founder of the STRANGEkit Performance Collective and completed her Bachelor of Arts at Monash University’s Centre for Theatre and Performance.
GEORGIE WOLFE (she/her) - LIGHTING DESIGNER
Georgie is a Melbourne-based lighting designer She is a graduate of Monash University’s Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science with interests in how theatremaking and science can interact Alongside her practice as a lighting designer, she is a freelance director, technician, sound and set designer. Her recent lighting credits include Blackrock (Platform Arts), Treats and Brittany & The Mannequins (Fever103), Thigh Gap (La Mama), Half Steam Ahead (The Butterfly Club), Q (La Mama), Wood Wide Web (Barking Spider Visual Theatre, ArtPlay), Pink Matter (Dancehouse), Daydream (Motley Bauhaus, MICF), Love of the Nightingale (Theatreworks, Fringe Replanted), The Bachelor S17 E05 (Mechanics Institute), Death Match (Monash Uni, Malthouse) and The Drill (Women’s Circus). She is passionate about creating a more sustainable theatre practice while pushing the boundaries of the role that technical design can play in the creation of new works.
CREATIVE TEAM
KELLY WILSON (she/her) - STAGE MANAGER
Kelly Wilson is a freelance Stage Manager and Staging Technician. Currently working at Arts Centre Melbourne, Kelly has stage managed works such as “House Sisters” (2019) and “After Hero” (2018) for Monash Academy of Performing Arts and Malthouse, Slaughterhouse Five (2019) for the Monash Uni Student Theatre. She has also assisted on “LONE” (2018) by the Rabble and “Angels in America” (2017) by Cameron Lukey Productions and Dirty Petty Theatre Her other credits for performance, direction and curation include Walt Disney World Entertainment (2020, performer), “My Brilliant Career” (2019, AD, performer) and Robert Reid’s “The Bacchae” (2019, AD, MD, Performer).
KAREN NG (she/her) - ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER
A theatre loving Monash University student, Karen is a keen assistant stage manager for Fever103's Climbers. She has previously been a part of a number of productions at Monash Uni Student Theatre (MUST) as an ASM for Kill Climate Deniers (2022) and stage manager for the 2023 orientation show: The Indiana JO-show as well as both stage managing and performing in MUST’s Into The Woods (2022).
ISABELLA VADIVELOO (she/her) - INTIMACY COORDINATOR
Isabella Vadiveloo is a theatre director and intimacy director. She has trained with United States based organisation Theatrical Intimacy Education, with specialisations in trauma informed intimacy choreography and working with Global Majority artists at the intersection of intimacy and race. Recent intimacy direction work includes I Wanna Be Yours (dir. Tasnim Hossain) for the Melbourne Theatre Company, A Year of Dating (Dir Lyall Brooks), Promiscuous Cities (Dir Alyson Cambell), Variations or Exit Music (Dir. Justin Nott), Last Time (Dir. Lily Hensby) and Reigen (Dir. Jess Dick) Isabella also works in the Victorian College of the Arts Theatre Department as a tutor and resident Intimacy Director.
CAST
MEG TARANTO (she/they) - ROSALIND
Meg is a performer, theatre maker, writer, director and dramaturg working across stage and screen in Naarm (Melbourne) In 2021 Meg completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) where they were awarded the Patricia Kennedy scholarship for outstanding achievement in performance. Whilst at VCA she devised work for Otello…What’s Changed? (dir. Robert Draffin), Sleep Faster! Show Cat! (dir. Emma Hall), Robert Mueller’s Day Off (dir Jason Maling) Low Hanging Fruit (dir Company 2021), created the participatory work Who Are You to Me? (2019) for the DISCORD879 festival and alongside the other members of Water Closette Company devised their graduating work B**CH. Meg also directed Our Father by Lucy Holz (Melbourne Fringe, 2019) and acted as dramaturg on Ned Kelly the Big Gay Musical (dir. Kaine!). She will assistant direct An Uncertain Time (dir. Sarah Austin, Arts Centre Melbourne) in mid 2023. Meg has been published in Voiceworks magazine and wrote their first play The Magpie in 2021 With every project Meg hopes to use the vitality of storytelling to make the world a more empathetic place
VERONICA PENA NEGRETTE (she/her) - LUCY
Veronica Pena Negrette is a Venezuelan-Australian actor based in Naarm/Melbourne, who is a 2022 graduate of a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). Her credits at the VCA currently include ‘Palace of Illusions’ (dir Sonya Suares), Paulina in ‘The Seagull’ (dir Bagryana Popov), Gemma in ‘First Love is the Revolution’ (dir. Georgina Naidu) and #25 in The Wolves (dir. Yoni Prior). Additionally performing in a handful of short films outside of VCA while studying, performing for Midsumma Festival and Melbourne Fringe in a show titled ‘Slutnik’ (dir. Tansy Gorman) and creating and performing an original work titled ‘I love Your Process’ performed at the VCA Muse Festival, with the goal of putting it onstage in 2023. Veronica is bilingual and speaks fluent Spanish and is also a dancer with 10+ years of training However, her favourite hobby is getting lost in the many worlds film and theatre have to offer, and she dreams of being a part of those stories herself.
EDDIE ORTON (he/him) - FRED
Eddie is a graduate of the National Theatre Drama School. Recent stage credits include Let The Right One In (Darlinghurst Theatre Co), Touching The Void (MTC), Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Outhouse Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Essential Theatre), Our Blood Runs In The Street (Red Line/ Chopt Logic), If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You (Green Door), Extinction of the Learned Response (Belvoir 25A), Jurassica (Red Stitch Actors Theatre) and The Players (Bell Shakespeare) Screen credits include Framed (SBS) and the feature film About An Age. Later this year, Eddie will be appearing in Every Lovely Terrible Thing (Lab Kelpie) at Theatre works. Eddie is proudly represented by Ian White Management.
CAST
SEBASTIAN LI (he/him) - ALEX
Sebastian is a graduate from The Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting There, he was awarded the Grace Marion Wilson Trust scholarship for Excellence in Acting. Sebastian starred as Chen in SBS miniseries New Gold Mountain and his other television credits include The Family Law (SBS) and Nowhere Boys: Season 4 (ABC). Sebastian has also performed the role of Prince Chululongkorn in Opera Australia’s The King and I (QPAC), and appeared as a supernumerary in The Australian Ballet’s 2023 revival of Don Quixote (State Theatre). Sebastian has performed with Melbourne Shakespeare Company on their productions of The Comedy of Errors as Angelo, A Midsummer Night’s Dream as Puck and The Merry Wives of Windsor as Slender. He most recently performed at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival with Breath and Bones Theatre Company in the original work How to Be a Person When the World is Ending, followed by a subsequent season at Theatre Works Sebastian is very excited to be playing Alex in Fever103’s production of Climbers!
CHARLIE VEITCH (he/him) - GEORGE
Charlie Veitch is an actor, writer and recent graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts (Theatre). His recent performing credits include 'Sometimes, Always, Rarely, Never’ (VCA), 'Rat King or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the ’ (dir. Katy Maudlin) and '7 Minutes in Hell' (writ. Jaimee Doyle). In 2022, he also starred in the short film ’The Kids Turned Out Fine’ (dir Ethan Wischer) and is currently appearing on ‘Wait! We’re Live?’ (RMITV). He hopes to bring his own new works to the stage in the near future!
TYALLAH BULLOCK (she/they) - RUTH
Tyallah Bullock is a proud Yorta Yorta/ and Chinese performer and graduate of Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) at the Victorian College of Arts company of 2022. They've been involved in over 30 main stage theatrical productions and over 15 film productions ranging all over Australia and worldwide. Their main and some favourite credits from both stage and film include Bea in 'Here There Be Monsters' (dir. Drew Macdonald), Clara Makin in Queensland's premiere production of 'Hatpin the Musical' (dir David Harrison), Marianne in 'Tales from the Vienna Woods' (dir. Mark Wilson), Pinocchio in Queensland's premiere production of 'Shrek the Musical' (dir. John Boyce), Mia in 'Miss Nothing' (dir. Richard Mildren), Nora in 'The Wandering' (dir. Corey-Jon Higgins), Polly Baker in 'Crazy for You' (dir. John Bolton), #14 in 'The Wolves' (dir Yoni Prior), and Phoebe in Brittany & the Mannequins (dir Monique Marani). She was also the winner of Best Actress at Tropfest 2019, Best Actress Ipswich Theatre Festival and winner of the Paul and Donna Dainty award for Excellence 2022. She is proudly represented by Shanahan Management.
CAST
TAHLIA JAMESON (she/her) - TOMMY
Tahlia is a mixed Australian/Papua New Guinean actor who graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a BFA in Theatre in 2022. Tahlia is bold in her offers as an actor and has the ability to add a specificity to every role she plays. Her fierce take to acting is supported by her sensitivity, vulnerability and curiosity as a person and takes this into every role. Some of Tahlia’s notable theatre credits include ‘Brittany & the Mannequins’ (Fever103 Theatre), 'Sacred but Filthy’(dir. Sarah Austin), ‘Play in a Day’ (Antipodes Theatre Company),‘Rarely’ (VCA Theatre Grad) Some of Tahlia’s film appearances include Mary in ‘Flide’ (dir. Hugo Kohler), Scout in ‘The Cubicle' (dir. Eleni Yates) and Dani in ‘Beans’ (dir Theo Benson) Tahlia has furthered her training working with Director Kim Farrant (RAW Truth Workshop), US Immersive workshop with Los Angeles coach John Rosenfield, Ilbijerri Theatre (‘The Score’ Development), Fundamentals of Stage Combat (Lyndall Grant) and is a Law Revue Alumni working with Australian comedians Frank Woodley, Shaun Micallef and Sammy J
LOTTE BECKETT (she/her) - DILYS
Lotte is an actor, writer and theatre maker, and a graduate of 16th Street Actors Studio and Melbourne University Recent stage credits include We’re New Here at Melbourne Int. Comedy Festival (writer/performer/producer), Last Time at Sydney + Melbourne Fringe, and CLUB NITE at Miscellania (writer/performer/producer). Recent film credits include Good Grief (SUZY Productions), an ad for Bad Frankie’s Fitzroy (Loose as Hell Productions) and Stella Donnelly’s MV How Was Your Day? She has written for La Mama, ATYP and Griffin Theatre Company, and was nominated for Best Outstanding Performer (Mudfest Arts) for CLUB NITE She is currently writing new work, A Fine Line, for Melbourne Fringe Festival and will perform a reprise of Last Time at the Motley Bauhaus in July 2023. Proudly represented by Kubler Auckland Management.
VITORIA HRONOPOULOS (she/her) - JANE
Vitoria is an Australian Greek Actor, Director, Theatre Maker, Singer and a 2022 Graduate at The University of Melbourne’s Victorian College of the Arts (Theatre). Vitoria’s work centres itself around comedy, character and melody. She has a keen interest in the building and breaking of tension and it’s potential within both comedic and dramatic performance mediums. She believes in the prioritisation of finding the soul or heart of work as her basis of development. Vitoria is a passionate, rigorous and soulful artist who interrogates her work mercilessly Her whacky and playful sense of humour runs deeply through the core of her creative interest. Her practice is informed by her background in Musical Theatre as well as her training in dance and martial arts. Her most recent credits include MidSumma Festival show 'SLUTNIK' (dir. by Tansy Gorman), and 'ΑνοιχταΜατια' (‘Open Eyes’) (dir /written by Vitoria Hronopoulos)
CAST
MILIJANA CANCAR (she/her) - BEATRICE
Milijana Čančar is a graduate of the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo and has appeared in theatre productions overseas and in Australia. Her most recent theatre credits include Daniel Keene’s “The Curtain” at fortyfivedownstairs and Rosemary Johns’ “Fire in the Head” at La Mama.
CHRIS BROADSTOCK (he/him) - RADLETT
Actor, writer, voice artist and musician, Chris has been working on stage and screen for over 20 years Recent highlights have been Melbourne Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor at St. Kilda Botanical Gardens and Yes I Will, Yes with Bloomsday Melbourne Upcoming credits include The Clearing on Apple+, Utopia for the ABC, and the animated series Under Koalafied.
Climbers brings Chris back to fortyfivedownstairs for the first time since True Love Travels on a Gravel Road in 2013. He also has numerous impro shows under his belt with Impro Melbourne and other companies He has two feature scripts in development and has written and performed in several Comedy Festival shows
SPECIAL THANKS
Monash Uni Student Theatre (MUST)
Yvonne Virsik
Callum Dale
Jonathan Yiap
Eric Wegman
Charlotte Meagher
Richie Brownlee
Andrew Niven
Oliver Scholast
Ellen Perriment
Justin Heaton
Kris Chainey
Harrison Baker
Jak Scanlon
Richard Marani
Baird Mckenna
Malthouse Theatre
John Collopy
Cameron Lukey
fortyfivedownstairs
& the entire team of the 2019 Season of Climbers at Monash Uni Student Theatre (MUST).
ABOUT THE COMPANY
Founded in 2020, fever103 theatre is a theatre and live arts company based in Melbourne/Naarm, Australia We aim to produce uncompromising theatre that will inspire and challenge contemporary audiences, and work to uplift the voices of emerging creatives.
Fever103's previous major productions include 'Brittany & The Mannequins' by Callum Mackay (Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre, 2022) and Treats by Christopher Hampton (Southbank Theatre, 2021), as well as consistently supporting the development of new work and hosting community focussed programs. Fever103 currently run a free play reading circle each week in which different groups of actors and writer gather to share, read and discuss new and established works. Later in 2023, Fever103 will present 'Tranquility Base' by Monique Marani at Theatre Works, and have exciting plans for 2024 and beyond.
More:
www.fever103theatre.com
COMING UP
Fever103 Theatre Presents TRANQUILITY BASE
by Monique Marani29 November - 9 December | Theatre Works
At the Tranquility Base Clinic for Respite and Repose, in Room 077, Eliza awaits a visit from her Mother who disappeared on the day of her admission. Her arrival brings with it a sea of questions, Eliza’s own struggle to articulate her illness, and the inevitable shortcomings of a parent’s love.
Tranquility Base is a searingly honest exploration of bipolar disorder and the relationship between mother and daughter. This is a story not of fracture, but of its aftermath.
BOOK NOW: www.fever103theatre.com
