“Wanderings” our latest creation
Come and play with Stella, a woman transitioning into dementia who adores her trans son Kidd despite forgetting who he is at times. Kidd is trying to sort out his mother’s life and, at the same time, have a life of his own. The Nest Ensemble and QT present Wanderings at Queensland Theatre, Montague Road, South Brisbane, Queensland. Our season: 30th November-till 14th December, 2024. Our workshops are on Saturday afternoons at 2pm.
It’s been a ride. Three years ago, Zac Callaghan rang me and asked, “Do you want to play again?” As The Nest Ensemble, Zac and I have performed many times throughout the last twenty years. The theme he proposed was relational, how a trans son and a mother moving into dementia facilitate the changing landscape. Being the mother of a brilliant trans son, I immediately agreed, and we invited Leah Mercer, Co-Artistic Director of The Nest Ensemble to co-write and direct this little gem. It has been a roller coaster of a ride, and regularly, we would arrange to gather together (we were in all different states) only to find that sickness visited, and we ended up on Zoom anyway. So, I could call this our Zoom Play. Lots of Facetime calls, Zoom calls, emails and Google Docs.
Slowly, we chipped away at it, and finally, due to the foresight of Queensland Theatre’s Door 3 programming, Hothouse Theatre’s Greenhouse Residency program, support from Pride Australia, Australian Plays Transform and Arts Queensland, we opened last evening to a most supportive crowd of theatre lovers.
I created Stella, who is moving along a path towards dementia. It feels like I have read nearly every published book on dementia…and I have learned so much. Dementia Australia has been a great resource, with an online library the general public can access. Stella is a writer, a lecturer, a mother, and she writes stories about the Celtic Fae.
Zac created Kidd, a delightful energetic middle aged trans man who is trying to make sense of his mother’s life and ensure that she is well cared for, and at the same time support his own immediate family in trying times.
What has Stella taught me? She has shown me that you don’t give in. And it reminds me of the saying that is circulating BlueSky social media: “Do Not Obey In Advance”. When i first read that I had to think deeply: what does that actually mean? Stella showed me: she refuses to move and she uses every trick in the book to sabotage the process.
It has been an act of love, stepping into the world of dementia every day. It is a world of ‘now’. Nothing is as it seems. Whereas in meditation we endeavour to live in the now, the world of dementia is a totally other ball game.
A rehearsal shot of the emerging space (definitely not the real thing) in the first week of rehearsal. Designer Rozina Suliman created our whimsical performance set… Rozina gathered whatever she could from the QT props room so that we could have something to play with until the real set started to emerge. , Rozina created a beautiful nest for us to play in.
Every actor has a photo like this at some time. Here we are at Hothouse’s Greenhouse Residency, rehearsing and at the same time staying safe. The Greenhouse is a splendid house to create work in, and you can apply for consideration each year. Contact Hothouse Theatre.
Here we are The Nest Ensemble (Margi, Zac, Leah) being interviewed for ABC Radio.
Zac wandering near our Greenhouse residence, Albury, NSW.
Tech week with Lachie our QT Production Manager, Freddy our lighting/projection designer, Sarah our patient stage manager, and Leah our director/co-writer/dramaturg, working hard. Rozina our designer is outside sewing props.
Zac has created a tender Kidd, a middle-aged man with a heart that is way too big, trying to deal with powerful issues that impact all of us at some time or another: dementia and life for someone who has transitioned in an increasingly transphobic world.
I have been lucky because I have been gently coached by my director Leah, whose mother, Dell, is now in the throws of dementia, and Zac, who is experiencing a shifting landscape in his own family where his mother, Judy, is in late-stage dementia. Many conversations were had about the things their parents said or did…Dell and Judy are woven into Stella's fabric, and I thank them each evening for their generosity. I also studied a video clip by a friend of Zac’s, depicting a joyous woman who had a dementia diagnosis. Her joy in life was infectious, and I thank her for providing another lens through which I could create Stella.
Mid winter rehearsal on the old tennis court, Brisbane. Leah and Margi discuss the script while Zac makes us a cup of tea(and our little Aussie Terrier looks on).
It was vital for us to embrace joy in the play, just as it is essential to embrace joy in our lives…Stella teaches us that joy is there, and at the same time, everything changes. Kidd opens up about what it is like to be a trans man in this day and age with all the bigotry and gaslighting happening around the world. Stella may forget Kidd, but she will never forget that he belongs to her.
eating honey (“the fae love honey”)…rehearsal in the back yard, Brisbane.
Change is the only thing we can be sure of, and Stella’s parting words to Kidd is to “kiss the earth with your feet, and whatever you do, keep walking forward”.
We have two more performance weeks: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday till the 14th of December 2024. We also have some workshops next weekend. https://queenslandtheatre.com.au/plays/wanderings, where we invite anyone touched by these themes of transitions to come and play with The Nest Ensemble at Queensland Theatre.
Our beautiful creatives and crew: Freddy Komp creates magic with lights, (Rozina Suliman…not here… is our beautiful designer but its very hard to get a photo, she is always on the go) and Sarah Connolly is our very patient stage manager.
Still in the rehearsal room, but things are beginning to come together. The day after this photo was taken we moved into the theatre downstairs. Design by Rozina Suliman, but you don’t get the sense of it in a reheasal room: it is surrounded by fabric. Like a wee nest.