Grey Arias / Program (2023)

WRITERS’ NOTES

Le Gateau Chocolat has carved a place within me, in my heart and art, for over a decade, frequently by executing brilliant barbs in my direction and at my expense. This excruciatingly satisfying kind of exchange is love language, for certain kinds of friends and performers, in a backstagey, texting-you-from-the-airport, draggy form. We’ve discussed every explosive cultural/political issue, shared every wonderful or horrible thing that’s happened to us. The shorthand here is that there is no context required for us to move from a divisive political discussion to personal horror revelation to punch line. In fact it’s the fabric, mortar, hearth, shag carpet and questionable curtains of the home that our friendship is, that follows us around, that scaffolds itself whether we’re backstage or across continents. It doesn’t change with the times. It exists in perpetuity. We were about to open this show – this expression of the grey areas articulated in spaces of difference and sameness in our lived experiences and sometimes elaborated in the safety and danger provided by stages and audiences – when covid hit. We make work from this place, collaborating in a space where there is no high art or low art; no pre or post-covid; there is no academy or street; there is no taste, high brow or low brow, and there is no meaningful difference, (besides training and funding), between opera, drag, theatre or cabaret. There is art and there is life and sometimes they are the same.

ADRIENNE TRUSCOTT / Co-creator & Devisor

Everything Adrienne said.

LE GATEAU CHOCOLAT / Co-creator & Devisor

Adrienne and Gateau are two of the most tasteless artists I know. Topics most people avoid out of politeness, respect, dignity – these two thrive on. They hunger for the chewy, complicated center of a conversation; they’re eager to process this morsel, not just in a dm or comment, but together, in front of and with you.

An aria in opera is an extended musical exploration of a feeling: there’s sparse text, repetition, musical themes, sonic lingering in one character’s emotion through song. A ‘grey aria’ is an extended exploration of the cringeworthy: abundant text, repetition, themes, and a commitment to linger in the greyest and sometimes most vulnerable areas of identity through painstaking inquiry, silliness, and drag. Adrienne and Gateau are not looking for (and certainly not finding) answers, but through their questions and prodding they find a rare expression of friendship. They’re artists as committed to making themselves uncomfortable as they are to caring for one another. This is true of how they will treat you, the audience. We welcome you into this game of rigorous care and insistent questioning. We welcome you into the grey areas of our first performances of Grey Arias , into something we’ve been working on for years that is also quite new; into something we’re eager to talk about with you and we hope will get greyer and greyer with your presence.

JOHN JARBOE (SHE/HER) / Co-director and Dramaturg

CAST & CREATIVE

malthousetheatre.com.au

ADDITIONAL CREATIVES

JOHN JARBOE / CO-DIRECTOR & DRAMATURG

CARMINE COVELLI / VIDEO & SOUND DESIGNER

CONNOR LOVEJOY / LIGHTING DESIGNER

JARED STEVENS / CREATIVE PRODUCER

PREVIOUS WORK ON GREY ARIAS 2020 (PRE-COVID)

EUGYEENE TEH / COSTUME & SET DESIGN

KIM ‘BUSTY BEATZ’ BOWERS / SOUND DESIGN

AMELIA LEVER-DAVIDSON / LIGHTING DESIGN

TRIGGER WARNING

There are lots of triggers in Grey Arias , some you might be familiar with if you are a British Nigerian drag queen, a white American woman, or a Puccini Opera. For instance, all the trigger warnings of a classic production of Madama Butterfly apply: elitism, Asian appropriation, sexual assault, self-harm while singing loudly...and so on. This is a show that finds humor in such triggering realities of the world, so please manage your own experience, and take care of yourself.

fishercenter.bard.edu

This project was supported, in part, by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant. Grey Arias was developed, in part, in residence with Live Arts Bard at the Fisher Center at Bard.

Campaign Photography / Allison Michael Orenstein & Lee Faircloth. Printed on 100% recycled paper. © Malthouse Theatre, the artists, designers, photographers, collaborators and contributors. All rights reserved, 2023.

ADRIENNE TRUSCOTT CO-CREATOR & DEVISOR, CAST

LE GATEAU CHOCOLAT CO-CREATOR & DEVISOR, CAST