Rumpus collective creates space for independent theatre seasons
Did you hear the one about the chameleon, the hamster and the boxer who sings karaoke? They are all part of a new theatre season at Rumpus collective in Bowden.
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What do a chameleon, a hamster and a karaoke-singing boxer have in common?
They are all part of a new program of performances at Rumpus, a collective of independent theatre makers based in Bowden.
As a collective, Rumpus offers resources that independent creators often can’t afford – such as its own theatre venue and the capacity to promote the individual shows as part of a season.
This season opens on September 17 with Chameleon by Britt Plummer, followed by How To Kill Your Hamster by Ladylike Theatre in November and Ezra Juanta’s show Blood, Sweat & Karaoke in December.
Paris-trained Plummer first performed Chameleon as a one-person show at the Fringe, but has expanded it with her company Frank Theatre to include four other physical satire performers.
“I wanted to bring more women into it, so I could make it as big as I had dreamt,” she said.
“It’s my life story, but it explores the social issues that women encounter, particularly the way that we change and adapt and mould our behaviour … to suit situations, or in order to survive quite often.”
Plummer spent two years studying with French physical comedy master Philippe Gaulier.
“It’s a clowning style called bouffon, which is essentially parody, it’s satirical. It’s a way of exploring social issues … using humour as a way in,” she says.
“Rumpus is incredible, because we are part of a season, we get the stage – we basically take over the space for four weeks’ rehearsal and a two-week season.
“It’s something that we really, really needed here in Adelaide as a support.”
How to Kill Your Hamster playwright Eliza Oliver and director Annabel Matheson also run their own company, Ladylike Theatre Collective.
“It’s a surreal ‘dramedy’ about women living in a share house, being infiltrated by the outside world and how that masculine culture affects their ability to control their lives … but they also have talking pets,” Oliver says.
“Life is ridiculous, and it reflects life in that way.”
Ladylike director Matheson also does volunteer work with the Rumpus collective.
“There’s nothing else like Rumpus in Adelaide – it’s totally unique in that it’s run for artists by artists,” Matheson says.
“It feels like we are supported from all edges here – we just wouldn’t be able to put theatre on if we didn’t have access to places like this.”
“It’s become like a hub for new work, which is often a really difficult thing in Australian theatre – to create and sustain new work … to have new voices,” Oliver adds.
In Blood, Sweat & Karaoke, creator Ezra Juanta plays Joseph “Joppy” Galura, a first generation Australian Filipino, raised in one culture, surrounded by another, but not fully accepted in either.
His only comfort is an unlikely pair of pastimes that tie both his cultures together: boxing and karaoke.
“I grew up being the child of immigrants – the story is fictionalised and dramatised but drawing experiences from myself and other people I know,” Juanta says.
“Australia, in terms of a colonised country, we are still one of the younger ones – and I think, because of that, we have a lot to learn.”
At the same time, many people from Anglo-Australian backgrounds now find themselves relocating to other countries.
“It’s going on around the world … think about it. You have Australians moving to Singapore now, and having kids there who are going through the same thing,” Juanta says.
“I’m proud of being Filipino as much as I am proud of being Australian, so I will sing the praises of both and talk about both.
“Within this character there is this conflict of not knowing where he fits in – that’s what we invite the audience to see.”
Season details and bookings at rumpustheatre.org