NEON Festival
May 2013
Five of Melbourne’s top independent companies will stage a range of original works as part of Melbourne Theatre Company’s inaugural NEON Festival from now until July 21.
A collaboration between MTC’s Artistic Director, Brett Sheehy, and a group of key players in Melbourne’s independent theatre sector, the diverse program is set to celebrate the city’s inspiring and unique arts community, promising to be a showcase of talent like no other. Featuring productions from the Daniel Schlusser Ensemble, Fraught Outfit, the Hayloft Project, the Rabble and Sisters Grimm, Sheehy claims there is no reason to doubt that NEON will become an annual event in years to come.
“When I came to Melbourne in 2009, as someone who’d worked in festivals around the country beforehand, I noticed how incredibly vibrant and talented the independent theatre sector was. I hadn’t experienced it in any other cities I’d ever worked in. I also noticed how separate the independent sector was from everything else, so when I joined MTC, I wanted to bridge that gap. I felt that there was a perception of MTC as a flagship company separate from this other activity going on, so I chatted to the artists who have ended up in this year’s program, and that’s when the seed was planted – for MTC to be an umbrella in assisting the celebration of the independent sector. I also wanted these artists to have absolutely no artistic interference from MTC at all, for us just to curate them so that what ended up on the stage was what they would do normally.”
Sheehy says that the MTC hoped to encourage activities for the public and independent theatre makers – such as forums, workshops, networking events and mentoring opportunities – which ultimately resulted in the festival’s additional element, NEON Extra. Bringing together industry commentators, journalists and leading creative figures such as Anouk Van Dijk, Ralph Myers, Emily Sexton, Andrew Upton and more, NEON Extra will also run over a 10 week period.
“Like all great festivals, NEON includes a raft of activities designed to flesh out the experience of the performances, as well as provide a platform for dialogue between the theatre makers of our city,” Sheehy explains. “At the moment, this is all a learning curve but we are definitely hoping to find the resources again to repeat it next year. We’ll have a debrief session and see what could work better next time. Whatever we at MTC can help with, we’ll make it happen.
“I’ve been involved in festivals for 17 years so I know how critical it is for artists to be able to bounce ideas off each other and for audiences to interact with artists. That concentration of artistic activity tends to result in things that are much greater than the sum of the parts. At this point, we’ve been able to turn it into a 10 week celebration along with NEON Extra – it would be a terrible shame if it happened once and never again.”
The Rabble’s artistic director and co-creator, Kate Davis, agrees with Sheehy, describing the event as an exciting opportunity for like-minded companies and colleagues to get together and conduct a dialogue for the first time.
“MTC have just gone for it with this festival, which is really exciting for all of us in the industry,” she says. “We’re all working together for the first time. We’re all able to talk about how everyone is going with their own shows; there is a real community feel about it. It’s important for independent theatre, full-stop. Things like the panels and discussions allow us all to be supportive of each other rather than be separated and I think an event like this will increase everybody’s audiences overall. Our company formed in 2006 and a lot of what we do is based on improvisation, so with that in mind, our work [‘The Story Of O’] is hard to describe because it’s based on that method.
Basically, we’re doing our version of the book, which is a controversial one written in the 50s. It’s a pretty erotic novel and quite intense so it’s been challenging to interpret that but that’s also been the reason we decided to do it.”
Ash Flanders of ‘drag-theatre’ troupe, Sisters Grimm, says his company’s production of ‘The Sovereign Wife’ takes a similar approach by re-interpreting a classic Australian novel and completely dissecting established national frontiers. Independent theatre and experimentation tend to go hand-in-hand, according to Flanders.
“The way our company works is that we do our own take on the themes that interest us. Previously we’ve investigated the ‘evil child’ genre and now we’re doing the ‘great Australian frontier epic’. We wanted it to run for nine hours but we’re not allowed to, so we’ll probably stick with two and a half hours. ‘The Sovereign Wife’ is a story of struggle against the land and trying to understand the mystical, magical land of Australia.”
Sheehy describes the festival’s concept as based on a “two-way” street which is guaranteed to benefit not only the theatre industry but Melbourne at large.
“Already, I feel the benefits because we’ve built this fantastic relationship with dozens of young Melbourne artists who we’ve previously had no relationship with. It’s a great thing for the independent theatre landscape and it’s amazing for the cultural sector in both Melbourne and the rest of Australia.”
MTC’s NEON Festival runs until July 21 at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner.
The Melbourne Review is a proud supporter of NEON Festival.
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