The GL RY BOX – Installation.
The GL Box is an installation part of GL RY, a research project lead by Dr Alyson Campbell during the 2014 AIDS Conference, presented in City Square in Melbourne.
The GL RY Box is a cube of 30cm with a hole drilled on each side. Designed to be put on one’s head to take a selfie and post it on Social Media with the hashtag: #GLRY. The piece plays with the idea of technological transmission: the web « viral » phenomenon. It also opens up a dialogue about disclosure and the stigma attached to identifying as positive.
More info about GL RY on www.gl-ry.com
GINA
Gina is a theatrical project based on Gina Rinehart’s public persona, investigating two key issues: the perception of women in power and the Australian identity.
Gina is a play about a woman we love to hate! Although we think we have good reasons, if she was a man would we care half as much?
Gina explores how the unprecedented numbers of women in key leadership roles, and how our continual focus on their personality and not their roles has uncovered something in our Australian psyche that impacts the way we view women who lead.
You’ll follow four characters matched in two pairs who live on either side of Australia. They embody the two extremes of Australian identity. And yet, they look very similar and what separates them on stage is only a thin line.
The project is all about audience engagement. To that aim a work in progress will be presented to the public early on the writing process. Not only we’re seeking feedback on the script and the key issues it’s investigating, but also we want the public opinion to be part of the show. To do so the comments will be recorded and integrated in the narrative of the final script in a post-modern approach.
The process we undertook challenges the classic order of phases in script development. The actual script writing comes almost last. It aims to capture the vividness of live performance by starting on stage rather than starting on paper. But it also make the most of the structural skill and poetic vision of a writer. It opens a conversation between all the artists engaged. Each step sees a voice adding its perspective to the project. So the play will be richer.
Presented as a participatory work-in-progress in Exploration Season at La Mama. (2013)
For more info visit http://ginatheplay.wordpress.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/ginatheplay Check our video out: https://vimeo.com/78034448
Banana Republic
« In a world of lies and tarnished ideals, sometimes all you can do is laugh at it. In ‘Banana Republic’ a group of young friends try to rebuild the world one sharehouse at a time when they start up a commune at home. Drawing inspiration from television sitcoms, the play takes a light-hearted look at serious issues. » Anthony Noack.
A political comedy written by Anthony Noack, directed by Iris Gaillard. Set design Avi Wanono. Performed by Alex Duncan, Andi Snelling, Matt Furlani and Scott Jackson. Camera person Laetitia Bastiani
2012 Melbourne Fringe festival @The Owl & The pussycat, Richmond.
Director’s note
Banana Republic is about a sitcom showing the life of four young people in a share house. The house is being organized into a commune as a ploy by one of its members, Julian, who wants to teach a lesson to his cousin and house mate, Jen. The sitcom scenario is full of the usual improbable comical situations typical of this genre. But it turns out to be quite realistic as our society itself is full of grotesque contradictions that you couldn’t write in a serious script. Truth is more absurd than fiction.
I was very attracted by the form of the sitcom because it opens once again the possibility of « the play within the play ». And it will allow me to play with the devices of a TV set, such as cuts, repetitions, actor’s preparations or technicians working around the set. It’s a great opportunity to have an insight on the backstage, the whole making process, everything that an audience is not use to seeing. I want to reveal the production of « fun ». Exposing the process is a way for me to deconstruct the sitcom’s form to show all the aspects of it: the incredible energy of the actors, the efficiency of the scenario, the mad rhythm but also its rigidity and directive side. When you watch a sitcom you’re told when you should laugh, when you should be moved, when you should applause… The deconstruction allows me to offer moments of distance to the audience for them to get a bit of a perspective on what they’re watching.
‘A hugely funny show.’ – The Opera Boys
‘Banana Republic is a fresh, idealistic play about big personalities with big ideas splashing the audience with a steady stream of laughs.’ – Same Same
‘A fun-filled ride with an incredible cast’ – Clare Pickering @ Aussie Theatre
For more info visit: http://bananarepublictheshow.blogspot.com.au/. our Facebook page or Pozible campaign
BRIGHTER/WHITER
“Two wannabe creatives in an advertising agency open the mail they’re supposed to sort and steal ideas in a bid to worm their way upstairs.” Anthony Noack
Written by Anthony Noack. Directed by iris Gaillard. Performed by Soren Jensen and James Deeth. Set Design by Lauren Steller. 2011 Melbourne Comedy Festival @The Workers Club.
Director’s note
Brighter/Whiter has been inspired by Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece Rosencranz and Gildenstern are dead. Just like in Stoppard’s play, Metatheatre is a central structural element in B/W. It features scenes of improvised games, silly shows, and commentaries reflecting on the current action. I propose to acknowledge the meta-theatrical aspect by exposing the play within the play. The two “wannabe creatives” are in fact two actors that keep on inventing improvisation games to improve the play they are performing.
« Overall this is a fantastic hour’s entertainment easily worth the price of entry. » – Crikey
« …a worthy inclusion as part of the Comedy Festival lineup, providing the audience with a steady stream of
laughter for 60 minutes » – Theatre People
« …tight, well-paced and thoughtfully structured, » – The Age
MOLIERE DOUBLE BILL, THE FLEET-FOOTED DOCTOR & THE JEALOUS HUSBAND
The Melbourne French theatre is proud to present : The fleet-footed doctor and The jealous husband, two hilarious short comedies written by the great 17th century French playwright Moliere at the beginning of his career. Full of energetic performance and big humour, they are highly inspired by the repertoire of the Comedia del Arte. Performed for the first time in Australia.
Written by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin known as Moilère. Directed by Iris Gaillard. Produced by Michael Bula (Melbourne French Theatre, Collingwood, 2011)
Director’s note
The idea is to explore the Popular Theatre of the 17th Century with a contemporary approach . Popular 17th Century theatre (as opposed to Court Theatre) is a market place theatre; it is the origins of French modern theatre. I was quite astounded to realise how much it has in common with Contemporary Theatre. In its process particularly, even though it was involuntary then. At that time, the fabric of the play was often « on set »: actors used to build the set on trestles before performing in the front of the audience. Backstage didn’t exist. Actors would change costume in a corner of the set.
In our production, actors enter the stage in their own clothes with a wooden caravan on wheels while the audience is coming. They quickly assemble the set, they put their costumes on and they begin to perform. When they’re on stage, they are performing in a very physical way, following the Comedia Del’Arte principles. When they walk out, they drop out their character. The audience can witness the change as the backstage isn’t hidden.
‘A recent arrival with an impressive resume making theatre in France, director Iris Gaillard has a real gift for comedy. Her classical production, in whiteface and period costume, proceeds from a deep understanding of the French comic tradition, but feels utterly fresh. With swift pace, sharp wit and elastic, cartoonish absurdity, this is a wonderful introduction to one of the world’s great comic dramatists.’ – Cameron Woodhead, The Age, May 6th 2011.
ANARCHY IN BAVARIA
‘Through its history, Anarchy in Bavaria is a naive science-fiction play. A bunch of young people make the revolution in Bavaria and proclaim the B.S.A: Bavarian Socialist Anarchy. After being an Anarchy for a while, the region which is not defended by an army, is occupied by opponent military forces.
Anarchy in Bavaria is opposed to a hastily revolution, pleads for a ‘long march’, a revolution in the revolutionaries’ conscientiousness first and then in the citizen’s one.
Different scenes, staged as a review, must show that external transformations are not sufficient to provoke something essential in the western conscience dependent on notions of oppression and authority.’
R-W Fassbinder in the Antitheater’s program.
Written by Reiner-Werner Fassbinder. Directed by iris Gaillard. Performed by Tamara Buschek, Flavien Cornilleau, Etienne Durot, Géraldine Moreau-Geoffrey, Selin Oktay, Lucie Navarre, Sidney Pinhas, Virgile Pons, Elise Pradinas and Emilie Piponnier. In Paris, Avignon, Montreuil and Vernouillet (France) between 2007 and 2009.
Director’s note
Anarchy in Bavaria is a reflection on Freedom and the price we have to pay to reach it: the sacrifice of Innocence. It is also opening a path for a theatre of many possibilities. Fassbinder’s plays features two groups so opposed they can’t even communicate: the family Legal-Time and the Revolutionaries. The family is trapped in its rigid principles and narrow perspective whereas the rebellious group is happy to smash all conventions into pieces, no matter the consequences. This opposition is translated on stage by actors performing two different style, as if they were not performing in the same play.The family actors are performing in an expressionist manner within a very narrow clean space. The revolutionaries actors are breaking the theatrical conventions: they perform in such a naturalistic way that it’s hardly a performance, they occupy every spaces on stage and in the audience. They switch off the lights, cut the music or interrupt scenes.
‘Fassbinder [has been] brought back to life by this promising company. La Compagnie de l’Imminence offers us a fresh and flamboyant interpretation of [Anarchy in Bayern] […] this beautiful moment of theatre invites you to exercise your freedom […]’ Olivier Pradel. Les Trois Coups, mars 2008.
Iris Gaillard 