Mention the word hospital or being sick and the memories that most people will have will be negative. But NICA's third year students from the Bachelor of Circus Arts are here to change that with their final showcase performance, SICK. Directed by Gavin Marshall, the show is inspired by Marshall's two month hospital stay where doctors tried to determine why his body was falling apart on him.
With this personal experience, Marshall captures the mundaneness, the ridiculousness and the gravity of hospital life. Taking place over 24 hours at St. Nowhere Hospital, the show opens with a number of patients passing time in the waiting room as they keep themselves occupied. On the other side of this wall we observe doctors and nurses in the staff room, tired, overworked and hurriedly getting themselves prepared for the onslaught of what is behind those doors.
Formed in Brisbane, circus troupe Casus has always been proud of the diversity of its company and the performances they created. It is this vision that has led them to become internationally recognised as leaders in contemporary circus. With five works unders their belt, this summer two of its performers hit the Midsumma Festival with You &
I, a touching and intimate exploration of a relationship between two men in love.
"You & I is a glimpse into these mens' lives," performer and co-founder of Casus, Jesse Scott says. "They are in a yurt in a subtropical rainforest of northern NSW. As they spend their time together, they perform a number of circus and dance acts, from trapeze to chair balances, from tango to hula hooping, and from acrobatics to a bit of silly magic but it all expresses the love, affection and joy felt by these people."
Adam
Kashmiry risked being killed in order to live his life. The Egyptian
born transgender man left his home and country at the age of 19 to seek
asylum in Scotland for the opportunity to be himself. This extraordinary
journey of resilience and strength was first performed at the 2017
Edinburgh Fringe Festival and is now making its Australian premiere this
Midsumma Festival.
It took director Jacob Thomas less than a second after they read the script to know they had
to put this on. “Adam’s story is an
experience you can easily disregard through one’s privilege, which is exactly why it's vital for our communities to hear this story, particularly as seeking asylum is
still incredibly difficult for LGBTIQA+ people," they explain. "White, Western queers - myself included - can forget, perhaps
conveniently, how our communities abroad are surviving. They’re getting
by without pride parades, support systems and events such as Midsumma. That’s not to
say we’re without struggle here in Australia, but more that we can’t
ignore the realities of our global queer families. We can hold both our
struggles and the struggle of others at the same time."
Visit Bette Davis’ grave and you’ll see the inscription
on her tombstone reads: “she did it the hard way”, and indeed she did. During a
Hollywood career that spanned 60 years, Davis made a name for herself as being a
fiercely outspoken and independent woman at a time when Hollywood preferred their
female stars to be demure and complaisant. Davis was quoted as saying
“I survived because I was tougher than anyone else” and in Queen Bette, Jeanette Cronin retraces the life of the Hollywood
icon and screen legend in a tribute performance to the woman who was regarded as the biggest bitch in
Hollywood.
Apart from an uncanny resemblance to Davis, Cronin’s channeling of the
Hollywood star in the 2015 premiere of Queen Bette was met with critical
acclaim in her inimitable portrayal of Davis. However, before she felt comfortable becoming Davis, Cronin spent a substantial amount of time understanding her by reading books, interviews,
stories and film viewings, to get as much insight as possible into Davis. “I suppose we had a mini Bette Festival in preparing for this show. The
first volume of her autobiography, The Lonely Life, played a huge part in its creation, as did the many interviews she gave over her entire career,”
Cronin tells me. “There is a wealth of material in the public domain and she
was a great raconteur, very entertaining and articulate. A very bright lady. A
lot of the dialogue is verbatim but there are also original speeches inspired
by true events which I have penned.”
Forming the artistic portion of her PhD, Pauline Sherlock's Trapped Inside a Fat Old Lady is the auto-ethnographic ruminations of a middle-aged woman ranging on topics such as body image, mental health, intimacy and menopause. Through storytelling, stand-up and singing, Sherlock opens up on these and the impact they have had towards her journey of self-acceptance and self-love.
The show plays like a TED talk with Sherlock hooked up to a mic, pacing around the stage with small gesticulations and pausing between sentences as she smiles and looks out to the audience. This cool and calm demeanour puts her in a position of authority, which is particularly fitting as this is the story of her life, so we are swiftly drawn in and eager to hear all that she has to say.
Mention the word hospital or being sick and the memories that most people will have will be negative. But NICA's third year students from the Bachelor of Circus Arts are here to change that with their final showcase performance, SICK. Directed by Gavin Marshall, the show is inspired by Marshall's two month hospital stay where doctors tried to determine why his body was falling apart on him.
