Fu@k! I Killed The Director plunges two actors into total chaos at Melbourne Fringe

What do you do when you kill your director on opening night? If you’re the two actors at the centre of FU@K! I KILLED THE DIRECTOR, apparently, you carry on with the production. Blending clowning, mime, dance and a does of chaos, the new work from Alright? Production Company throws two desperate performers into the aftermath of a very unfortunate accident, as they attempt to keep their adaptation of Romeo & Juliet alive while facing the small matter of their dead director. Created by Nina Hopley, Alana Louise and Jason Schwab and performed by Louise and Schwab, the 50-minute farce promises an anarchic, physical and distinctly unpredictable Fringe experience.

The piece takes a pretty spectacular theatrical disaster and turns it into a celebration of play, silliness and letting go. "Two actors, Cherry and John, are about to debut their rendition of Romeo & Juliet. But moments before the curtain goes up, they accidentally kill their director. Covered in blood and reeling from the shock of the freak death, they then do their best to keep the performance alive in front of the audience. It gets absurd, messy and nonsensical, and there are even some real emotional gut punches," Schwab tells me.

"We hope it asks the question: What would it look like if we could kill that inner critic we have, that corrosive part of ourselves that cuts us down at every turn? There’s mime, a lot of cheekiness and idiocy, choreographed physical sequences, and significant room for us to improv and riff with the audience," he continues.

"Ultimately, this show is about play. It's about having as much enjoyment as humanly possible and inviting the audience to join in on that outrageous fun. And for that hour, while the world can feel like it’s falling apart outside, we can all be frozen in time having fun together," Louise adds.

The pair have just concluded a work-in-progress season, a relative rarity when it comes to Fringe Festival productions. The experience has proved invaluable, giving them the opportunity to test it in front of audiences, discover what works and, importantly, what doesn't. "One of the biggest things we realised is that every single night will be different based around what the audience is into and what they’re not into. And that felt… not great initially," Schwab explains, "After a couple of nights we understood we needed to ditch the stands and stools and allow ourselves to play as much as we wanted. Alana and I are very physical, very off-the-cuff, and generally unhinged, wild, in our performing style."

"Maybe it's a little narcissistic, but I think I’m excellent and that all the ideas I touch are going to work out and someone’s life will be changed for the better and someone somewhere is waiting to give me the key to the city! I really needed the humbling of an early work-in-progress to keep myself grounded," Louise admits. "You soon learn with live feedback that you can never learn enough, there is always more that can be done and that the drawing board should be an accessible space to return to. Through the work-in-progress it was clear what sections were connecting and how it was being received. That outside eye as feedback is always extremely helpful!"

While there is a strong emphasis on clowning in the show, neither Schwab nor Louise necessarily sees themselves as clowns, and they are wary of the preconceptions that can come with labelling themselves as such. Instead, they treat clowning as a practice, using its sense of play, physicality and freedom without being bound by its conventions. "While I don't consider myself one, learning clown has changed my life," the Gaulier-trained Louise says. "The more time I spent at clown school the harder it was to describe the craft of clowning as it became more of a sensory task. It feels more of a lifestyle choice, choosing to not run away from, but to celebrate embarrassment (the flop). I see clowns as our beautiful truth tellers, instead of these feared gutter hiding villains TV often makes them out to be."

"I am deeply interested in clown and who experiments with the ways that clown can enhance or deepen what I’m doing, both on stage and in life," Schwab adds. "I’m also unsure how I feel about labels in general. 'Clown' means so many different things that pinning down an exact definition, image or ideals around it is difficult to do. I’m not a purist and certainly not one to rigidly adhere to any particular school of thought. Pick up a thing, a pen, a brush, a guitar, a broom, a performing approach or philosophy, and use it however you want to use it to make whatever the hell you want to make."

With more artists engaging with the form and it becoming more established in the city’s performance landscape, it is undeniable that clowning has been proliferating across Melbourne’s arts scene over the past few years, something Louise and Schwab welcome and hope continues. "Clown is having this huge and wonderful surge. It’s definitely in the zeitgeist right now. and a lot of people from Australia and Melbourne have ended up training at Gaulier," Schwab says. "When you see a great clown, or someone who weaves that into their work, it’s nearly impossible to forget! One of the first Gaulier-trained performers I saw was the Kiwi mime, Trygve Wakenshaw, back in 2013. That show is still one of the best things I’ve ever seen anyone do and he’s one of the main reasons I decided to go to France.

"The clown revolution comes as an answer to a world that is growing increasingly more complicated and cold," Louise concludes. "There’s something lovely about knowing clowns. They are simple and feeling beings, their intentions are clear and they may make you laugh."

For Louise and Schwab, clowning is less about fitting neatly within a specific tradition and more about welcoming play, failure and being completely ridiculous. That ethos is central to FU@K! I KILLED THE DIRECTOR, where the mayhem of a disastrous opening night gives them room to experiment, improvise and play with whatever happens, and to have fun with the audience while doing it.

FRINGE FIVE FAST ONES

1. My pre-show ritual is
Jason: I have this very special person who’s been instrumental to my development as a performer and whenever I’m about to walk on stage, I say "Michiko, Look at me! I’m doing this for you! Look what I can do!"
Alana: Probably a Diet Coke and some deep breathes.

2. If a song was to play each time I entered a room, it would be
Jason: The chorus from Foo Fighters’ "My Hero".
Alana: "I’m Too Sexy" for my shirt. Right Said Fred.  

3. If I could instantly become amazing at one skill, it would be 
Jason: Dancing. I would fucking love to dance like a total pro ballerina tap-dancing extraordinaire who can do flips and splitz and shit.
Alana: Hacking computers for the FBI, I’d love a side hustle that made me look cool as shit and gave me a tonne of cash. 

4. If I were forced to eat one meal for the rest of my life, it would be
Jason: Banh mis.
Alana: Cheese and biscuits, cheddar and blue cheese on a cheap cracker. 

5. The hill I will die on is
Jason: It’s okay to admit you don’t know, you have no fucking idea what any of this is, and you’re just doing your goddamned best.
Alana: Don’t toot your car horn before 11am. Unless the person your tooting your horn at is truly doing some dirty business but don’t add too much stress to the start of someone’s day.

SHOW DETAILS 

Venue: The Motley Wherehaus, 432 Queen St, Melbourne
Season: 5 - 18 October | 6.20pm

Duration: 60 minutes
Tickets: $30 Full | $25 Conc | $22.5 Hump Day Wednesday
Bookings: Melbourne Fringe Festival

Images credit: Joe Kenny