ring, ring!
theatre performance (60 minutes)
November 23rd, 1963. The day after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, a young girl scout is killed in a suburban street while walking home. A B-list celebrity, a questionable counselor, a blue-collar worker and a housewife are taken to the local cop shop to await questioning. A character comedy in a groovy 1960’s dreamscape. Grab your prawn cocktails, sit back on your vinyl chair and welcome to purgatory!
Inspired by the post-dramatic works of Bertolt Brecht, Martin Crimp and Sarah Kane, Ring, Ring! is a devised experimental performance work, abandoning traditional theatre practices in an attempt to mimic the disjointed haphazardness that is everyday life. In this piece, the artists use an amalgamation of techniques including sound design, cinematography and contemporary choreography to subvert the concept of what theatre is and create risky work.
Broadly, the work can be described as a critique on the "golden age" of American/Australian consumerism after the Second World War, the concepts of consumerism =/= loneliness and the perpetuating "American/Australian Dream" myth that is force fed to younger generations despite the cost of living being higher than it's ever been. The piece asks the audience to consider whether mass consumerism and capitalism are truly what we desire, especially emerging from a pandemic. Furthermore, Ring, Ring! forces audiences to partake in the performance as unwilling voyeurs on a reflection of themselves as they witness the crumble of modern society.
Written and Directed by: EBONY RATTLE and ELLEN WILTSHIRE
Costume Designer: PETRIA HOGARTH
Cinematographer: VERITY JOHNSON
Sound Designer: ALEX MRAZ
Stage Manager: EMILY BUSCH
Performed by: KAYA BYRNE, BRITT FERRY, SHAMITA SIVA, LIA STARK, MAURICE WAN
PREMIERE: Theatre Works, Naarm/Melbourne, January 5 - 9 2021
Presented by VIRTUAL WAITING ROOM in conjunction with Theatre Works, City of Port Philip and Creative Victoria.
Production Photography: ZELMAN CRESSEY-GLADWIN