Reviews- Guerilla Semiotics. The Enthusiast.

"Waterproof, at Melbourne City Baths, running until tonight (sorry), is interesting for completely the opposite reason. Is there a renaissance of female theatre-making in Melbourne? After years of smart young men, are women finally collaborating too? Put together by Marita Fox, Waterproof is something very unusual: piling up Beckett, Plath, psychology and Japanese rituals among the inspirations, and with a voice-over clearly marking a connection to the world of drama, it is still, and mostly, a postdramatic event. (I was going to write theatre plus swimming, but that seemed glib and rude.) And one very unusual such event: a deadpan not-quite-horror, not trying to create illusions, and not stuck into some theoreticall alley either. I thought of Kafka, strangely enough. And I thought of Godard, particularly Alphaville: the way Fox played with the theatrical form, to create something that was partically ironic, partially deeply felt and partially just fun, reminded me a lot of Godard’s approach to cinema. I even thought of Kundera’s Unbearable Lightness of Being, the swimming pool nightmares of visibility and responsibility. There were plenty of shortcomings to Waterproof, most pertinently that the motivation or sense of meaning got lost very early on, but that seems less important to me than the fact that it had an aesthetic (in this case, since it was anti-representational, a way of us all being in the same space) that was absolutely original and unlike anything I’ve ever seen in Melbourne. In particular, if I may add, since Melburnian theatre women sometimes seem wedded to the most traditional ideas of theatre this side of Broadway, it was exhilarating to see something so boldly new coming out of a woman’s brain. I will be very interested to see where Fox goes next."

- Jana Perkovic, Guerilla Semiotics, May 2, 2010

Link: http://guerrillasemiotics.com/2010/05/melbourne-news-news/

Waterproof also reviewed by

-Allison Browning in The Enthusiast, April 27, 2010.

Link: http://www.theenthusiast.com.au/archives/2010/review-waterproof/

Performance Images.

Photographer Sophie Lavence

Photographer Theresa Harrison

Review, THE AGE, Cameron Woodhead. 27, April, 2010

NEW SEATS AVAILABLE!

I have just added 7 more 'official' seats to tonight and Saturdays show on the online booking site. We can also accommodate you at the door with a Concession price ticket if you don't mind being seated on mats at the front- ponchos supplied if you are wearing your Sunday Best and are worried about being splashed! If you missed out this week, book now for our final week- tickets are selling like mad!

WP shots.

RRR

Going into RRR this morning for an interview on the Smart Arts segment with Richard Watts. Catch it on air at 11am.

Program.

WATERPROOF

The Disturbance that occurs in this water is non-specific.

The performers make up four parts of the one psyche: Man/Woman.

STAGE 1. Prepare for the Unknown Known

STAGE 2. The Push and Pull

STAGE 3. Attempts at Synchronization

STAGE 4. The End is your Beginning. Try again

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

The concept for this piece emerged as I attended synchronised swimming lessons in Footscray, 2009. I quickly developed an obsession with performance in the water and even more quickly realized I was not going to compete in the next Summer Olympics.

And so Waterproof began…

My starting point was an image of a “crisis”, played out repeatedly with differing outcomes. This “crisis” was the scene of someone drowning, and the need to save that someone. That someone being you.

Since then, much has inspired the development of this work; the hedgehog story in Samuel Beckett’s ‘Company’, ‘The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat’ by Oliver Sacks, ‘The Arrival of the Bee Box’ by Sylvia Plath and even the Sumo wrestling rituals of Japan.

I wanted to investigate our grappling with commotion in the subconscious through the metaphoric and tangible medium of the water. I was interested in the internal battle we experience and the accruing cyclical nature of habit.

-Marita Fox

ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE CREDITS

Created and Directed by Marita Fox

Performed by Anthony Couroupis, Marita Fox, Kasia Kaczmarek, Tristan Meecham and Alice Robinson

Sound Designer Liam Barton

Lighting Designer Geordie Barker

Costume and Props Design and Construction Rebecca Diele

Prose by Simon McInerney

Voice over Marita Fox

Video Installation Sophie Lavence

Stage Manager Shaila Figs

Sound Operator Rebecca Diele

Lighting Operator Ryan Heath

Producer Marita Fox

Publicity Trisha Fox

Publicity Image Sophie Lavence

Publicity Graphics Kate Rogers

Bar David Passmore

WATERPROOF is supported by the City of Melbourne through the Young Artist Grants Program.

Special Thanks to - All cast and crew, The Melbourne City Baths: Narelle and staff who have been so generous and hospitable to us, Megan Simondson and The City of Melbourne, Tarren Otte, Chloe Greaves, Alice Glenn, The Diele Family, Mary Fraher, Anne O’Keefe, The performers of the Development: Anthony Couroupis, Lily Paskas, Chloe Boreham, Heidi Barrett.