World Premiere of #MoralPanic / MORAL PANIC by Rachel Perks and Bridget Balodis by Rachel Perks and Bridget Balodis
DATES: 14 - 24 November 2018 with time: Wednesday - Saturday 8pm, Sunday 6pm, Saturday 24 November 2pm
LOCATION: The Main Hall, Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre
WEBSITE: https://www.darebinarts.com.au/…/moral-panic-by-rachel-per…/
The award-winning team behind GROUND CONTROL (Next Wave, Brisbane Festival 2016) and ANGRY SEXX (Melbourne Fringe 2014) unleashes the world premiere of their occult thriller, MORAL PANIC at Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre from 14-24 November. This savage new performance from writer Rachel Perks and director Bridget Balodis is an unsettling hallucination, a deep dive into witchcraft and a dark comedy that dares audiences to venture to strange and uncomfortable places.
“We have been working on MORAL PANIC for over two years now and the longer we work on it the more politically relevant it seems to become. It is about three young witches - two women and one non-binary person, meeting in the forest to curse the patriarchs in their lives. One of them has built a digital Ouija board for contacting spirits and they get themselves into much more than they bargained for.”
“Right now, all around the world, there are women and queer folk actively practising witchcraft. It’s having a renaissance. We see witchcraft as a really exciting and deeply theatrical way of exploring gender, queerness and feminism.” said Rachel Perks.
Over the past five years Perks and Balodis have made three works which they have informally titled their ‘CAPS LOCK TRILOGY’ - ANGRY SEXX, GROUND CONTROL and MORAL PANIC. All of which explore feminist futures and system collapse through speculative fiction and celebrate the lives of women and queer folk. Although they have differing narratives, the three works exist in the same thematic and dramaturgical world. MORAL PANIC places queer and feminine experiences at its centre and looks at how existing structures are made to serve the needs of the powerful and how they might be subverted and reclaimed by the oppressed. ANGRY SEXX earned them a Green Room Award nomination for best independent writing and was awarded the Melbourne Festival Discovery Award. Perks and Balodis will make their theatre company debut with MORAL PANIC under the banner of ‘Double Water Sign’, a tongue in cheek reference to their shared astrological signs.
“We want to take huge risks in our content, form and style” says director Bridget Balodis. “Culturally we are on the cusp of an important change in storytelling, people are interested in hearing from women, and in seeing someone other than a man at the centre of a story. We're taking inspiration from a movement that's being led by writers in the United States: It's about proving that non-binary folk and women can embody the mythic, the heroic and the momentous, we can be protagonists, take up space and kick ass”.
The MORAL PANIC cast includes performer and theatre-maker Kai Bradley, actor and theatre maker Chanella Marcri, actor Eva Seymour and actor/musical theatre performer Jennifer Vuletic.
ABOUT THE TEAM:
In 2018, Rachel Perks spent three months in New York City investigating downtown dramaturgy under the guidance and mentorship of Sibyl Kempson, Erin Markey and Tina Satter and in 2017 she took part in ‘The Next Stage’ as part of Dublin Theatre Festival. In addition to her work with Bridget, her writing credits include Eyes (Sandpit), contributing to Schmaltz (Daniel Schlusser, Malthouse) and co-writing Elbow Room’s We Get It (NEON 2015, Powerhouse 2016). Bridget Balodis’ artistic practice also led her to New York, where she lived for two years. She has presented work independently in New York and Melbourne and also with the Next Wave Festival (2012, 2014, 2016), Red Stitch, La Boite Indie, You Are Here and Penrith Arts Centre. She has also been the recipient of the Ian Potter travelling scholarship, Mike Walsh Fellowship and Dame Joan Sutherland Fund Award and was part of Melbourne Theatre Company’s Women Directors Program in 2014. Kai Bradley’s recent performance credits include APOKALYPSIS for Next Wave 2018, Plus Sign Attached with Maude Davey, Little Ladybug and GROUND CONTROL for the 2016 Next Wave Festival, science fiction feature film- Upgrade directed by Leigh Whannell and short film The Girl Who Was An Almond. Chanella Macri credits include Australian Theatre for Young People, Pichet Klunchun’s Dancing with Death (AsiaTOPA Festival), Woman with a Tomahawk for La Mama Explorations 2017, The Sun and The Moon directed by Bridget Balodis and co-creating and performing in Speak of the Devil for FRISK at Melbourne Fringe 2017. She is currently in rehearsal for Suddenly Last Summer with Red Stitch.
Eva Seymour after graduating from 16th St Actors’ Studio in 2015 Eva became a Red Stitch Graduate Ensemble Member in 2016 and was seen in The River, The Honey Bees, Trevor, You Got Older, and Uncle Vanya and Desert 6.29pm. Eva played the part of Megan in the hugely successful Puffs at the Alex Theatre (2018). Film credits include Lazy Bones, Pillars, So Long, Fathers’ Day and The BBQ. Jennifer Vuletic - stage and musical theatre credits include Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Mamma Mia, The Nightingale and the Rose and Merciless Gods for which she won a Green Room Award for Best Performer. She is currently rehearsing for Suddenly Last Summer at Red Stitch.
CREATIVE CREDITS:
Creators - Rachel Perks (Writer), Bridget Balodis (Director)
Set & Costume Designer - Romanie Harper
Lighting Designer - Amelia Lever-Davidson
Dramaturg - Emma Valente
Creative Producer - Natasha Phillips
Cast - Kai Bradley, Chanella Macri, Eva Seymour and Jennifer Vuletic
Duration: 60 mins
Tickets: Full $33, Conc/Student $28, Preview $25
Warnings: Haze, loud noises, partial nudity, adult content, references to gendered violence. Ages 15 +
Thanks to our friends at Prue Bassett Publicity Bohemian Rhapsody Club and Magazine is covering the media opening night of 15th of November (media: Leanne-Mike Vallance) Please stay tuned for more details about this event