These two Australian coming-of-age stories both ask, in different ways, for us to take a fresh look at ourselves, how we see ourselves and each other. First up is:
The Sorry Mum Project, written and performed by Pippa Ellams. Mothers are embarrassing, every schoolchild knows this, and we meet Pippa aged eight, sharing her mortification at the horror of shopping with her mother Barbara for the G-string Pippa needs for a for a school dance production. It’s the first of two juvenile horrors involving underwear, and we feel her pain. Both Pippa’s parents were in showbiz and her mum can think of no better career for her daughter than to follow in her high-kicking showgirl career. As Pippa explains, via well-paced humorous anecdotes and bouts of her own impressive tap-dancing, she didn’t see it that way. No surprise to learn that the young Pippa didn’t recognise her mother as a person with ambitions, feelings and identity of her own. That realisation dawned slowly, during and after mother-daughter arguments.
There are some sweet and sad observations here. Ellams’ script moves along well and takes us all the way from Fairfield to the Moulin Rouge in Paris. She wrote it as an apologia to her mother and, as she says in the program notes, ‘Sometimes I see the cracks of what I did to her over the years appear and I need her to know I am sorry’. There will be more than one mother and daughter in the audiences for whom this play will resonate. The vigorous tribute to Barbara at the end shows that there is quite a bit of the showgirl in Pippa after all!
Hannah Goodwin and Tasha O’Brien share directing credits.
Let Me Know When You Get Home, a new work by Miranda Aguilar, centres on Val (Gloria Demillo), a Filipino teenager who cannot wait to break free from the restraints of her suburban life in Fairfield and get to Sydney, where she imagines she will find the freedom to live her life as she wants. Her best friend Thi (Brooke Lee) knows and accepts Val is gay, but her Mum (Jemma Wilks) can’t come to terms with her daughter’s unfeminine clothes and her ‘bald’ haircut. She gets to Sydney of course and is taken in by a group organising a Mardi Gras parade, spearheaded by the pragmatic Dakota (Rose Maher) who is continually exasperated by Prince (Tommy Misa). Val thinks she has found her dream in Prince, a flamboyant but lonely older artist with attitude and a colourful wardrobe.
Aguilar, self-described as queer and Filipinx, has a lot to say in this play about isolation and loneliness and being accepted for who you are, no matter your age, race or sexuality. Of their own experience, they say: ‘I didn’t want to wait until I escaped the suburbs and was able to move to Sydney, Melbourne or San Francisco or some other seemingly mythical queer utopia. I just wanted to feel less lonely.’
Aguilar gives the characters some succinct dialogue, such as: Thi: ‘Every time I see you, you look more like a dyke.’ / Val: ‘You mean like myself?’; and Prince observing that ‘Glitter is even more invasive than Captain Cook’). The writing is strong but once in a while I wished for a little less. The pace flags a little in the middle as Val tries to establish herself in Sydney, and Thi seeks her own identity in a bible group, and Prince comes to grips with his loss, and Mum continues to ignore her daughter’s sexuality. A minor quibble.
The performances are excellent, and endearing. Demillo’s Val is vulnerable, personable as well as doggedly determined and Misa’s Prince is a scene stealer, even without his wonderfully outrageous clothing.
And where is home? Not necessarily where you might think.
Let Me Know When You Get Home is directed by Valerie Berry. The Creative Team for both shows is Melanie Liertz (set and costume designs); Benjamin Brockman (lighting), and Me-Lee Hay (sound design).
Sadly, the season is short, from 18-20 March. Tickets are $25-$39
https://riversideparramatta.com.au/show/launchpad/ Tickets are $25-$39
