Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Thursday 17 July
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
More than any other artistic discipline, theatre has a long history of performers crossing the gender divide. But how does the artifice of a constructed gender performance relate to and comment on the fact we spend much of our everyday lives performing gender roles, often unconsciously? Are our entire lives a kind of performance?
Zoe Coombs Marr is an acclaimed writer and comedian whose show Dave has turned gender stereotypes upside down, while delighting sell-out audiences. Zoe is joined by Paul Capsis, an actor and singer who explores the notion of gender fluidity in his work, Jez Pez, a queer trans youth worker, and audio investigator Roslyn Oades. The final part of Roslyn’s audio trilogy examining courage is I’m Your Man, a revealing insight into male speech patterns in boxing, as heard through verbatim performances via headphones.
Together, they’ll look at how masculinity is portrayed in performance, and how rooted it is in the art itself, illuminating its many facets, flaws and strengths. This intriguing and subversive take on the male psyche will be facilitated by renowned actor and director Jane Montgomery Griffiths.
Men Overboard
What does it mean to be a man – or a boy – in the 21st century? How far have we come in shedding the macho expectations of the past … and to what extent do we still perform our gender roles on a daily basis? Do we still believe that boys are made of slugs and snails and puppy dogs’ tails, or that real men don’t eat quiche? This insightful series explores masculinity through talk, performance and across the generations.
Featuring
Jez Pez
Jez Pez is a queer trans man. Professionally he works as a youth worker, educator and project manager in the field of trans and gender diversity. Jez is the creator of Dude magazine, a resource about trans masculinity and sexuality.
Jez recently managed a national trans sexual health program with Buck Angel, an international award winning sex documentary maker.
Roslyn Oades
Roslyn Oades is a theatre-maker and performer. She has a long-standing interest in audio-driven performance projects, and is best known for her pioneering work in headphone-verbatim theatre.
As a writer/director, her productions include: I’m Your Man (Belvoir/Sydney Festival/Mobile States national tour), Cutaway: a Portrait (Vitalstatistix), Stories of Love & Hate (Urban Theatre Projects/Sydney Theatre Co) and Fast Cars & Tractor Engines (Urban Theatre Projects/BYDS).
She was the 2013 Female Director-in-residence at Malthouse Theatre, where she developed her latest work, Hello, Goodbye & Happy Birthday, soon to premiere at the Malthouse Theatre as part of the 2014 Melbourne Festival.
Roslyn is a contributing author on the Currency Press publication, VERBATIM Staging Memory & Community, edited by Paul Brown. She also moonlights as cartoon voice performer - including major roles on the animated TV series: Tracey McBean, Bananas in Pyjamas, Zigby, Dogstar, ZuZu & the SuperNuffs, Bambaloo and Sea Princesses.
Jane Montgomery Griffiths
Jane Montgomery Griffiths is an actor, writer and academic. Currently Director of Monash University’s Centre for Theatre and Performance, Jane is an expert on Greek drama and theories of performance, and has taught at Cambridge, Leeds, Melbourne, and La Trobe universities.
She has acted with many theatre companies in the UK, including RSC, Theatr Clywd, Cambridge Theatre Company, and Chichester Festival Theatre. In Australia, she has performed with Bell Shakespeare Co (King Lear), Malthouse (Sappho…in 9 fragments, Wild Surmise), Fraught Outfit (Elektra), Red Stitch (Good People), for whom she also directed Wittenberg, and The Rabble for MTC’s Neon (Story of O) and Malthouse (Frankenstein).
As writer, Jane’s plays include Sappho…in 9 fragments (Currency Press; Malthouse; ABC RN; Greenwich Theatre, London), Sectioned (ABC RN), the libretto Razing Hypatia (Opera Nova; 3 Masks), and an adaptation of Dorothy Porter’s Wild Surmise (Malthouse, ABC Radio National).
TV includes: The Bill, Casualty, Red Dwarf, One Against the Wind and A Murder of Quality. Awards and nominations: Manchester Evening News Best Actress (Electra); RE Ross Script Development Award (An ox stand on my tongue); shortlisted for NSW and Victorian Premiers’ Literary Award, Best New Play (Sappho…in 9 fragments); nominated for Greenroom award for new writing (Wild Surmise).
Paul Capsis
Paul Capsis is a playwright, performer, actor and singer.
Capsis co-wrote the one man autobiographical play Angela’s Kitchen, which won him 2012 Helpmann Awards for both Best Male Actor in a Play and Best New Australian Work. His career takes him beyond the stages of the world’s leading theatre companies into film, television, recitals and cabaret.
He has also received a Sidney Myer Performing Arts Individual Award, and his voice has been described as ‘an act of God’ –allowing him to traverse the musical spectrum from classical and jazz through gospel, soul and rock'n'roll.
Zoë Coombs Marr
Zoë is a performer, writer, artist and comedian. She grew up in Grafton, where she and her best friend staged a musical instead of going to schoolies week. In 2006 she won the National Poetry Slam Championships under ...