Article: Sexier, weirder stuff

Early last year, Sydney was bombarded with an intriguing little folder announcing the beginning of the next instalment of the Sydney Theatre Company’s small stage programme. It was distributed to every nook and cranny of the city and suddenly people were talking about what was happening down at the home of the STC. There was the taste of contention.

Not because of the slick marketing, matt finish or the revolutionary style font, but because of what it was saying. Robyn Nevin, artistic director, had appointed Brendan Cowell and Chris Mead, foot soldiers in the new wave of Sydney theatre, to curate the season in the Wharf 2 theatre and they were making some bold statements.

Their mission statement included words like ‘struggle’, ‘resistance’ and ‘unity’. It had a political ring that smelt of underground dens and oaths of allegiance. They declared a manifesto and a ‘Vow of Clarity’ that recalled the Dogme films of Lars von Triers and Thomas Vinterberg.

The STC, like most state theatre companies, have run alternate programmes to their main stage production but the STC Blueprints programme had trouble finding its voice. Many of the productions were hit and miss and it never captured the imagination of the vast body of independent artists who were pushing themselves like mushrooms through the floorboards of the establishment.

“We wanted to collapse some of the distinctions that exist in Sydney and the perception of the type of performance that happens at the STC”, Chris Mead reflected.

For better or worse, many believe that the productions by main stage companies, whether it be the STC or any other, are subscriber based, inaccessible and expensive. What Wharf2Loud has done in the last year is open up the doors to aggressive and contemporary theatre with cheap tickets and a season of plays that reflect the immediacy of entertainment loved by the under 30 audience.

“We took all the reasons why people said they couldn’t go to the theatre and we crossed them out” Brendan Cowell said. “We wanted to make theatre sexy and accessible again – often you feel like if you haven’t done a theatre degree – or are part of the hip intelligentsia of theatre artists, that you can’t go to the theatre. That’s not saying we have dumbed it down at all – but we wanted to make it sexier and exciting”.

Cowell and Mead set about shaking things up again. Traditionally, the small stage season was three productions usually attempting to challenge theatrical form, often with expensive technical and stage costs. To free this programme up, Cowell and Mead removed one of the productions and spread their budget to six smaller shows, called Pushes. Each of them are rehearsed in only eight days with three performances.

Each of these Pushes are designed to conform to a set of ten rules established to inspire ingenuity with small resources. The set, costume and props are not to be purchased or built but found within the confines of the Wharf, all sound must be produced on stage with no special effects and the shows must not be longer than 83 minutes. Other rules, such as actors must be willing to be naked on stage and a limitation on swearing are a little less clear in their intention.

The manifesto of limitations divided the independent industry. As Cowell points out “We had lots of people criticise the manifesto, and people calling it the best thing and people calling it the worst thing and in the foyer people are throwing fists over what theatre is and that’s great!"

Creatively they are challenging the independent scene to steer away the aspirational high-tech productions and to get back to the basics of story telling. But what the introduction of these Pushes has really meant is that more and more emerging writers, directors and actors are walking through the stage door of the STC and a platform is being provided to harness their skills closer to the professional stage.

This is a relief to many. The infrastructure around the theatre scene in Sydney means that there are two distinct tiers in place with little cross over. The funded professional theatres and the non-funded fringe scene. Between the two of them, there is little to prepare independent artists with the responsibility and glory of a larger venue.

As Chris Mead says, “we wanted to build up independent artists who were at that point where they had distinguished themselves. They really need to get that experience at the middle level before they hit the big stages.”

In the last year Wharf2Loud has drawn on the talents of 37 actors, 15 playwrights and 9 directors from the independent scene. The results for these artists are tangible. Lee Lewis, a director from one of last year's Pushes, will be directing Robyn Nevin in a STC main stage production at the Sydney Opera House and another Push team have been offered one of the more established spots in Wharf 2’s season later this year.

For audiences, the attraction of Mead and Cowell’s curatorship has seen an explosive theatre programme which is attracting future audiences. Indeed, Brendon Cowell said that “we had people turning up who hadn’t been to a performance since high school, and they just heard about this space. Thursday night would be industry night and then the Friday – we wouldn’t recognise a single person!”

The cost of the Wharf2Loud season is nearly half a million dollars to the STC, with very little real return in box office profit. But with packed houses and people being turned away from nearly every performance, the investment for Robyn Nevin and the STC is social capital.

This year the manifesto and the energy continue but without Chris Mead, who goes off to head PlayWriting Australia as its inaugural Artistic Director. Brendon Cowell, however, will continue the work established in the last twelve months to see more packed houses and more independent artists re-discovering the simple art of story telling.


Wharf2Loud has two Pushes coming up in the next two weeks - Dead Caeser by ABC Chaser Chris Taylor followed by certain Australian companies from version 1.0. The next Wharf 2 mainstage production is Self Esteem written and directed by Brendan Cowell. Further information: http://www.wharf2loud.com/

Images:
Top - Belinda McClory, Ewen Leslie & Rhys Muldoon PHOTO: BRETT BOARDMAN
Bottom - Victoria Longley and Brendan Cowell PHOTO BY: TRACEY SCHRAMM