Theatre & Performance

HORSES, 25A (Belvoir Downstairs)

A late-capitalist battle royale of endurance.

HORSES follows the lives of a disparate group of contestants who intertwine across an inhumanely grueling, Depression-era dance marathon.

This surreal yet hyper-real social satire slyly and sincerely evokes the 1930s Great Depression to consider the pandemic-ravaged 2020s.

HORSES plunges audiences inside the macabre cabaret of a historically real but morally unreal ‘reality’ competition.

Set in Sydney in 1932: A tumultuous, state-shaking year for New South Wales, this ‘murder on the dance floor’ drama captures endless days of lunacy, laughter, struggle and heartbreak.

Directed by Tait de Lorenzo

Written by Ian Sinclair

Designed by Cris Baldwin

Photos by Robert Catto

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Work with Big Muscles Sad Heart

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Olympia, Olympia! PACT Theatre

It must be the best. It must. The weight of nations on their shoulders, warring bodies cut through air in a fury of time and motion. Milliseconds stretch into months and years and tucks and pikes. A flame is flung from the ancient past into a burning present that is poised at the blocks of a glorious, muscular future. Olympia… Olympia!

Part theatre, part tournament of the absurd, this funny and twisted show tears the fast-beating, competitive heart of capitalism out of the barrel-chest of sports and holds it up to the bright lights of the stadium. Theatre collective Big Muscles Sad Heart (JobReady, Knowledge Acquisition, Variety Night) turn the sporting spectacle on its head and turn their three ordinary bodies into athletic machines for the full length of a half-game.

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The trio are excellent, it is a dialogue-lite piece that relies on sophisticated use of their physicality and facial expressions which they manage with aplomb. - The Buzz From Sydney

Interview about Olympia, Olympia! with Judith Greenaway at Reviews by Judith

JobReady

At JobReady Agency, it's our job to get you a job! But you'll have to work for it. Can't have you lazing around on public money, can we? We'll break you down and build you back up to be the perfect candidate. This may feel a little strange!

This surreal, dark comedy follows a young man on his journey through the degradations of unemployment and into the purgatory of the welfare system, where the call-waiting music never ends.

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Written by Caitlin Doyle-Markwick

Performed by Sabrina Chan D’Angelo, Caitlin Doyle-Markwick, Sarah Easterman and Matte Rochford

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The ideas are sombre, but the show is uproarious… the self-directed cast brings to the stage something that is quite extraordinary in its acerbity and exuberance. Its commedia dell'arte style of presentation is joyful, and marvelously entertaining; the laughs in this show are nothing short of rambunctious. - Suzy Goes See

The madcap menagerie, you have to see the show to fully understand, is very cleverly done with a complex characterisation beneath the movement and interactions. - Reviews by Judith

The script is vignette-based and very funny … its agility and wit make for excellent entertainment. - Audrey Journal

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Big Muscles Sad Heart Variety Night

Started in 2017, Big Muscles Sad Heart’s biannual Variety Night is a “low pressure, high support” platform for experimental works, works-in-progress and collaboration between artists at all stages of their careers, working across a range of disciplines. Performers at previous Variety Nights include Martin del Amo, Patricia Wood, Madeline Baghurst, Marcus Whale, Alicia Gonzalez, Vanessa Berry, and Alice Williams.

Each night is loosely themed, with the hosting itself a performance that compliments and supports the work of presenters. Themes have ranged from “Table for One” and “Sliding Doors”, to “Yuletide: Pagan Christmas”.

Home Base for Variety Night is Join the Dots Workshop in Marrickville, but special editions have been held at Down Under Space and 107 Projects.

Knowledge Acquisition

Knowledge Acquisition is an interactive performance art piece and an inquiry into the nature of inquiry.

How do we know what we know, and what we it be like if we didn’t know it? Moreover, what would it be like if we didn’t know anything outside of the walls of a cell, with only a handful of artifacts and some audience members to build our worldview?

It would probably be pretty fucked up. Help us find out.

Presented at the Lockup Gallery in Newcastle as part of The Bender, a festival of performance, sound and installation art in 2018.