It’s hard to imagine the frequent flyer points Geelong’s Back to Back Theatre has tallied up over the three decades it has been touring. Last year alone, its members performed live shows in Germany, France, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Canada.It’s not all high-flying, though. In 2021, longtime ensemble member Sonia Teuben passed away, while another linchpin of the team, Mark Deans, recently retired from performing.
Simon Laherty during rehearsals: “I try to figure out what I need to do based on the show. That comes first, then the awards.″It’s perhaps more interesting to ponder how Back to Back has changed international theatre. The ensemble has always comprised people with disability or perceived disability, though individual members have different relationships with those terms.
Bron Batten descibes her character as “the colleague you have that thinks she’s the boss but she’s not”.Through her interactions with the rest of the team, questions about advocacy and allyship, and the condescension and aggression that can accompany supposed offers of support worm their way into the work. The fault lines they reveal eventually reach a seismic climax. There’s a lot in there and no one gets off lightly.
From left, Bron Batten, Sarah Mainwaring and Simon Laherty. “I’m really the only one doing all the labour,” says Mainwaring.The work may be unflinching in its willingness to face darker aspects of human relations, but it also contains much humour. Price always reminds his collaborators that what they’re making is entertainment. “I’m no one-trick pony, but I like to entertain people,” he says.
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