★★★★★
“Expansive and razor sharp…a chilling reminder of the ways power disguises itself for its own ends” – The Guardian
International Ibsen Award 2022
Golden Lion Award, Venice Biennale 2024
Set in a placeless warehouse, three employees approach a possibly pointless task. As the employees struggle to work together, they grapple with questions of inclusion and identity.
They are forced to test the limits of their bodies, their cooperation and their capacity to care. Initial politeness descends into bad behaviour and sly victimisation. Reality distorts, and language flips from being playful and hilarious, to deadly serious and menacing. The conflicts are familiar, continuing to exist in the reality we live in today. Are you complicit?
The witching hour is here. Who will be the scapegoat?
Back to Back Theatre has received international acclaim for crafting work that defies expectations, and has consistently devised with an ensemble of actors who identify as having an intellectual disability or as neurodivergent. They are the first Australian company to win the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre in 2024, and were also a recipient of the International Ibsen Award in 2022.
In the making of this new work, Back to Back Theatre invites new voices into the devising room. Zoë Barry’s score is assembled from collected field recordings of bad things. Anna Cordingley’s design demands the actors’ physical participation to reach its manifestation.
MULTIPLE BAD THINGS is theatre. It is not real. But in a world where self-righteously indignant voices so often drown out the most disenfranchised and vulnerable, this theatre sometimes feels real.
Welcome to the workplace at the end of the world. They’re only saying what you’ve already been thinking.
Hear from the artists themselves — Join them at Workshop: Theatremaking with Back to Back Theatre (23 Aug) to learn more about developing an inclusive theatrical practice and experiment with different ways of co-creating theatre.
Devisors: Bron Batten, Breanna Deleo, Natasha Jynel, Simon Laherty, Sarah Mainwaring, Ben Oakes, Scott Price, Tamara Searle, Ingrid Voorendt
Directors: Tamara Searle, Ingrid Voorendt
Performers: Bron Batten, Simon Laherty, Sarah Mainwaring, Scott Price
Set & Costume Design: Anna Cordingley
Composer & Sound Design: Zoë Barry
AV Design: Rhian Hinkley
Lighting Design: Richard Vabre
Helpline Voiceover: Rachel Griffiths
Script Consultant: Melissa Reeves
Creative Development: Michael Chan, Mark Deans, Alana Hoggart, Francesca Neri, Tamika Simpson
Stage Manager: Alana Hoggart
Production Associate: Jordi Edwards
Sound Engineer: Thomas “Soup” Campbell
Company Manager: Erin Watson
Production Manager: Bao Ngouansavanh
Producer: David Miller
Executive Producer: Tanya Bennett
Artistic Director: Bruce Gladwin
MULTIPLE BAD THINGS has been co-commissioned by Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), The Keir Foundation, The Anthony Costa Foundation, Geelong Arts Centre and Back to Back Theatre’s New Work Donor Circle, with development support from Festival d’Automne (Paris), Malthouse Theatre, Une Parkinson Foundation, Sidney Myer Fund and Give Where You Live.
Back to Back Theatre is supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, and the City of Greater Geelong.
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