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.

Form and Style

The space is set up as a simplistic bar: open shelves line the back wall filled with bottles, and a long bar table with three stools in the centre. The minimal design allows for more flexibility, inviting the audience to suspend their disbelief as the conversational scenes flow into movement pieces. The bar table and chairs move, flip upside down and dance with the performers to invoke the change of scenery, place and time. Lighting and sound complement this morphing set, and aid the audience to follow the plot and characters journey. The bottles from the back wall are picked up, poured into pint glasses, moved around the set, and slowly removed from the back wall, leaving an empty gap in the shelves by the end of the show.

Pouring and spilling “alcohol” (water) is used throughout the show and drives the story forward. Characters are seen drinking from their pints, pouring into glasses, pouring on the floor, over the bar table and spilling onto each other; the end of the show has the stage and each character covered in “alcohol”.

Finally, we have our live sound designer/performer set up in the corner with a guitar, effect pedalboard and live sample pad, playing the bar DJ. He underscores the work for the duration of the show, mixing in pre-recorded tracks with live music that is looped and layered in response to the performers in the space. This desk also holds a live microphone, which is used by performers throughout the show.

Community Engagement

As a movement-based theatre company, we plan to do free workshops across WA to get regional performers & young people interested in physical theatre and the company. The cast and company are all WAAPA graduates with extensive training in devising theatre. The company members all have experience in holding workshops and have been trained in wider performance methodologies including the training method of Tadashi Suzuki and Anne Bogart and SITI Companies Viewpoints work, which both would form part of the workshops.

The workshops would involve methods used by Undercurrent Theatre Company to create new work including: physical and vocal warmups, exercises for devising material for physical theatre and insights into the Undercurrrent method for developing new work. We would work with schools within the area to offer workshops during the day, and inviting the older students to the performance at night, with the potential for discounted tickets for those attending the workshop.

We would also hold Q and A sessions following the work allowing the audience to engage further with the company and the My Shout team.

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

Available Marketing Collaterals

We have marketing material available from our previous season at The Blue Room Theatre and from our DLGSC funding for the production.

• Promotional Photoshoot: Promotional photos taken at Four5Nine of all five performers in a bar, including group shots and individual shots, are available for use across platforms and on print material
• Production Shots: Performance photos taken from our season at The Blue Room Theatre, which have been used to recreate our marketing material (see poster attached) and can be used across platforms and print.
• Video Trailers: We are currently in the process of finalising a 2-minute and 5-minute trailer for the performance, with footage taken from our season at The Blue Room Theatre. This will be used to market on social media and across venues.
• Media Release: we have a pre-made media release from our season at The Blue Room that will be edited for the tour.

Credits

My Shout is the debut work of emerging theatre company Undercurrent Theatre Company, made of four performance makers who have a passion for movement based works: Samuel Gordon Bruce, Scarlet Davis, Claire Appleby, and David Stewart. After graduating from WAAPA’s Bachelor of Performing Arts in 2020 the four created the company and hit the ground running, performing their debut show My Shout during the Blue Room Theatre’s 2021 season. Since then, the company has been funded for multiple developments and continues to work towards their goal of interdisciplinary collaboration and creation.

All four members have their own independent practice outside of the company that spans across directing, writing, sound design, AV design, performing and devising. When starting new projects the company follow a non-hierarchical structure, where members will change roles per project to use their skills effectively, and to also provide opportunities to expand our skillset and try new roles with the safety net of an emerging company. This structure allows for a highly collaborative and versatile team.

Our crew for this performance are a team of successful independent artists who have brought their experience in independent and large-scale productions to the design and run of My Shout.