My Shout

My Shout opens on four mates in their mid to late twenties (Claire, Scarlet, Shaun and Chris) sharing afternoon drinks in the local pub, stuck in a heated debate about which beer is the best. As the night progresses the stage slowly morphs between candid conversations to stylised movement, invoking the feeling of those first few drinks hitting your bloodstream. The drinks keep coming and the performance evolves into a frenzy of physical theatre, live music, personal anecdotes, and the grotesque; highlighting the complex reality of Australian drinking culture. Expect karaoke, wild goose chases, and lots and lots of spilled drinks.

Each performer will be telling their own stories about their experiences with alcohol, mixed in with poetic imagery and text, and commonplace gestures found within familiar drinking environments. The combination of these elements make the show accessible for audiences who don’t usually watch movement theatre, allowing the audience to connect with the performers and the content of the show. Audiences are taken along for the wild ride with the performers from sunset to sunrise, and contemplate their own relationship to alcohol through each actor’s own journey through the show. My Shout is not a PSA against alcohol, nor does it glorify its use. Instead, it’s an honest portrayal of the fun, awkward, wild, embarrassing, memorable, and forgotten moments that are relatable to our audience and to wider Australia.

Reviews

“My Shout is a snappy, even-handed trip through the jungle of social and antisocial drinking. It makes no excuses for its excesses and doesn’t dismiss its pleasures.” – David Zampatti, From the Turnstiles

“It starts tentatively, the cast looking uncomfortable on stage as the audience arrives, and then opening with poetic musings on beer and what seems an unlikely physical theatre dance piece in a bar. But it evolved quickly into an insightful exploration on why we use booze, and the physical movement and dance work becomes increasingly ingrained into the storytelling; to drink and not have to talk, the false courage, the partying, the fighting and falling, and the ultimate, depressing, hung-over and uncertain belief that ‘we had fun, didn’t we?'”- Sarah McNeil, TimeOut Magazine

“It was evident that the stories were important to the performers; the four cast members worked with a profound closeness that was obvious in their interactions, often completing very fast-paced and risky movements with complete trust in each other. Not a single centimetre of the stage nor a side of the table was left unused, which often resulted in very creative (and sometimes slightly anti-OHS) group movements, including people sliding across the table and one notable battle for water.” – Bec Weldon, Grok Magazine