The Horse’s Mouth Festival

 At its worst, autobiographical performance is self-indulgent and trite. At its best, it draws the audience into the lives of the performers, making compelling, somewhat voyeuristic viewing, in a way that only first hand accounts of real life can.

 Presented by: Tamarama Rock Surfers Theatre CompanyVenue: The Old Fitzroy Theatre
Thursday 24 November 2011
At its worst, autobiographical performance is self-indulgent and trite. At its best, it draws the audience into the lives of the performers, making compelling, somewhat voyeuristic viewing, in a way that only first hand accounts of real life can. Thankfully, Tamarama Rock Surfers and Bambina Borracha Productions’ new project, The Horse’s Mouth, celebrates the best of this form of performance with three rotating programs. Night A, entitled ‘Bolted’, Night B, ‘Hell For Leather’ and Night C, ‘One Trick Pony’.
The sold out opening night audience were treated to a piece from each program, Zoe Coombs Marr’s I’ve Been Everywhere, Man, Alex Vaughan’s Les & Eileen and Zoe Norton Lodge’s This Is Not A Possum. The three pieces couldn’t be more varied in terms of style, tone and story, but each is engaging and immediate.
Zoe Coombs Marr was first up with the story of her less than ideal solo road trip around Australia. Zoe is hilarious in her retelling of her spur-of-the-moment road trip, after hitting her ‘rock bottom’ – moving back in with her parents in Grafton because she was broke and having to reapply for the casual job she had in high school. She warns the audience straight up that she doesn’t come out the end of this story a better person, or really having learned anything, but she does manage to tackle some fairly dark moments in her life with plenty of belly laughs and some genuine insight. 
Her performance treads the line between stand up set and plain anecdote, but the narrative structure works and keeps the audience on the edge of their seat. While she comes close to getting the audience offside with a few jokes that aren’t exactly politically correct, she always manages to draw them back into her world and back onto the road. I’ve Been Everywhere, Man is a hilarious romp, with a few disturbing, cringeworthy moments, which most of us can relate to in some way.
The tone of the night changed quite suddenly with Alex Vaughan’s photography series, Les and Eileen. The series is a touching look into the final moments of a 96-year-old woman’s life and her husband and family in the days following her death. The series is very moving, and audible sobs could be heard all around the theatre throughout the presentation. 
Finally, was Zoe Norton Lodge’s This Is Not A Possum. Zoe recounts moments from her childhood, as well as some of her childhood nightmares in her own poetic, frantic language. Words and stories spurt from her mouth like poetry for the entire 45 minutes with surprising accuracy and confidence. It’s a performance with great texture and an ingenious use of language. She brings to life childhood nightmares in a wonderfully potent way, where dreams mix with reality. Her performance is supported by a chilling, live soundtrack performed by Emily Irvine and a dreamlike audio-visual presentation by festival producer, Vanessa Hughes.
The opening night offered only a taste of what the festival has to offer. It is a very exciting concept, and hopefully one that will develop into an annual event to present the work of new and diverse artists.
Bookings: http://www.bambinaborracha.com/horse/Until December 17, 2011