ALL THE SEX I’VE EVER HAD SYDNEY FESTIVAL AND SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE PRESENT
MAMMALIAN DIVING REFLEX | CANADA | AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE
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SYDNEY FESTIVAL AND SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE PRESENT
ALL THE SEX I’VE EVER HAD MAMMALIAN DIVING REFLEX | CANADA | AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE 21–24 JANUARY 120MINS NO INTERVAL
CREATOR’S NOTE
Steve Toulmin
All the Sex I’ve Ever Had is what it is: a show about all the sex we’ve ever had. But all the talk about sex is just an excuse to share something extraordinary: the older we get, the more courageous we are to share our vulnerabilities. This courage has no relation to the youthful bravado that masquerades as bravery. It is a courage born of enduring hardship and tragedy and understanding that vulnerability is universal. Life is a bitch and then we don’t die; we keep on living and living and living as our sight, vision, muscles and neurons wither and the people we love evaporate. This shit is not for the faint of heart; the courage, a quiet resilience, a world of simply not giving a toss about what others think, producing a calm generosity. Our culture doesn’t place much value on this generosity – displays of vulnerability make us very uncomfortable – preferring the lovely and charming self-aggrandising cockiness of youth that’s so much easier to tweet. We hope that All the Sex I’ve Ever Had can re-establish the idea of the community of elders, who share their experiences and, most importantly, their vulnerabilities, helping the rest of us step up and be brave. As feminist legal philosopher Martha Albertson Fineman points out, vulnerability defines the very meaning of what it means to be human. It’s how we begin, it’s how we end, and it lies in wait for us every time we cross the street. If there is anything that absolutely unifies all of us, it is our vulnerability.
LOCAL COORDINATORS
DARREN O’DONNELL
PERFORMERS
Jennie, Judith, Liz, Paul, Peter, Ronaldo WRITERS
Konstantin Bock, Darren O’Donnell and Eva Verity in collaboration with Jennie, Judith, Liz, Paul, Peter and Ronaldo DIRECTORS
Darren O’Donnell, Konstantin Bock PRODUCER
Eva Verity ENVIRONMENT DESIGN
Konstantin Bock SOUND DESIGN & MC
Mark Mitchell, Adam McGowan INTERNS
Megan Exton, Christie Woodhouse
an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario
Further reading: Vulnerability: reflection on a new ethical foundation for law and politics. Edited by Martha Albertson Fineman and Anna Gread. (Ashgate, 2013).
MAMMALIAN DIVING REFLEX Based in Germany and Canada, Mammalian Diving Reflex is dedicated to investigating the social sphere, always on the lookout for contradictions to whip into aesthetically scintillating experiences. They create site and social-specific performance events, theatre productions, participatory gallery installations, videos, film, art objects and theoretical texts, collaborating with non-artists to create work that recognises the social responsibility of art, fosters a dialogue and dismantles barriers between individuals of all ages, cultural, economic and social backgrounds. Mammalian brings people together in new and unusual ways around the world, to create work that is engaging, challenging, and gets people talking, thinking and feeling. They make ideal entertainment for the end of the world.
Portland Edition, 2014
DARREN O’DONNELL
KONSTANTIN BOCK
Director Darren O’Donnell is an urban cultural planner, novelist, essayist, playwright, director, designer and performer. He’s got a BFA in theatre, a M.Sc. in urban planning and studied traditional Chinese and western medicine at the Shiatsu School of Canada. His books include: Social Acupuncture (2006), which argues for aesthetics of civic engagement, and Your Secrets Sleep with Me (2004), a novel about difference, love and the miraculous. His stage-based works include White Mice (1998), [boxhead] (2000), A Suicide-Site Guide to the City (2004), Diplomatic Immunities (2007), All the Sex I’ve Ever Had (2012) and Promises to a Divided City (2014). His performance works include Nightwalks with Teenagers, Haircuts by Children, Eat the Street and The Children’s Choice Awards. His urban cultural planning clients include The London International Festival of Theatre, The Metropolitan Region of Rhine-Neckar, Germany; The West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong; and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada.
Director & Environment Designer Konstantin Bock is a film and theatre director based in Berlin. He studied applied film, theatre and fine arts at the University of Hildesheim, and Jewish studies and the history and culture of the Middle East at the Freie Universität Berlin. His film work includes commercials, music videos, short films and documentaries. His most recent documentary, Hattie Goes Cruising, co-produced by Mammalian Diving Reflex, finished a successful festival run in the US, after premiering at the 2015 New Orleans Film Festival. He has worked as a director, designer and creative associate with Mammalian internationally since 2009. Konstantin is currently working on a feature length film version of All the Sex and a feature documentary.
EVA VERITY
Producer Eva Verity is an arts manager, theatre and film producer, illustrator and body painter based in Toronto. Eva joined Mammalian Diving Reflex in 2008, and as the company’s Director of Creative Production & Artistic Associate she is involved in all things Mammalian, including producing and touring Haircuts by Children, The Children’s Choice Awards, Eat the Street, These Are the People in Your Neighbourhood, Nightwalks with Teenagers and All the Sex I’ve Ever Had to over 20 cities internationally. Eva has a combined Honours B.A. in art history and cultural studies and critical theory from McMaster University, an M.A. in art history from York University, and is pursuing a business leadership certificate from the University of Toronto.
STEVE TOULMIN
Sound Designer & MC Steve’s composition and/or design credits include Jasper Jones, Ivanov, La Traviata, Blue Wizard, Radiance, Is This Thing On?, 20 Questions, The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe, The Seed, Scorched (Belvoir); Little Mercy, Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness (Sydney Theatre Company); The Bleeding Tree, Beached, A Hoax (Griffin Theatre Company); Great Falls, Liberty Equality Fraternity, Circle Mirror Transformation (Ensemble); That Face (Queensland Theatre Company); Tender Napalm, Julius Caesar and Hamlet (La Boite Theatre Company). As a songwriter and music producer Steve has worked with artists including Megan Washington, Ricki-Lee Coulter and Samantha Jade.
MEET THE CAST JENNIE Shortly after the devastation of the London Blitz, Jennie was born, the youngest of four children. Her parents were surprised but her arrival met with joy. She has memories of her father reading stories and voicing the characters and hiding behind the sofa reading books when the maiden aunts visited. Building secret grass huts on the golf course took precedence over dolls. A year at secretarial college with brainwashed girlfriends who aspired only to work in a typing pool before marriage convinced her there was much more to life. Still under 21, she was a key player in organising exhibitions at the Farnborough and Paris Air Shows before sailing, on the SS Canberra to Australia, arriving in a culture-starved and priggish Sydney in 1964. Fabulous times unfolded with jobs at management level in the emerging travel industry, flying often to amazing destinations, but romantic relationships, though intense and exciting, died as quickly as they began. She auditioned for Drama College in Melbourne and spent five years as a mature-aged student, graduating with a Bachelor of Education. Organising major international conferences and events was fast-paced and innovative. Life is a learning opportunity and imagination is more important than knowledge. JUDITH Judith is a 71-year-old retired public servant. A large part of her working life was in social justice areas, including as a union officer and as a delegate, and she continues to be an activist in her retirement. She is currently a StrokeSafe Ambassador and a committee member for Dying with Dignity as well as participating in acting classes and a writers group. She was in a heterosexual relationship for 33 years until her partner died eight years ago. She doesn’t have any children of her own but is an aunt to several nieces and nephews.
Portland Edition, 2014
LIZ Liz is in her 65th year and was born at St Margaret’s Hospital in Sydney. She grew up in Richmond and Wagga Wagga, but found herself living back in Sydney in her late teens, and has lived in and around the city ever since. She worked for 15 enlightening years for an airline, and currently works in the hospitality industry. She has one child and is single at the moment. She admits to being a fan of trashy who-dunnits, wine (any colour or vintage), and cryptic crosswords.
PAUL Paul is a 63-year-old gay Sri Lankan Burgher who has lived in Australia since 1962. Trained as a social worker, Paul has spent all of his working life in human services working with government, the community sector and as a freelance consultant. He is a food writer and sometime restaurant reviewer. After a brief flirtation in a heterosexual relationship Paul came out as gay at 28 and immersed himself in the political gay rights and party scenes in Sydney in the early 80s, becoming active also in community mobilisation during the early years of the AIDS epidemic. Paul has had both long-term gay partners and one-night stands. Paul has six children from donoring with five women, to one of whom he is married. He has been single now for a number of years. PETER Peter is a 71-year-old retired solicitor having practiced law for 30 years in a Sydney French-speaking law firm. He has been with his second wife for 35 years and after leaving the legal profession they ran a sheep and cattle farm in the central west for 15 years. They now spend three months every year in Paris catching up with friends and family. After graduating, Peter spent a year in France teaching English and playing rugby. In 2012, he participated in L’Effet de Serge by Philippe Quesne as a part of the Sydney Festival.
(L to R) Peter, Jennie, Liz, Ronaldo, Judith, Paul.
He has two children by his first wife of seven years. His second wife also has two children from her first marriage. Peter has had several sexual partners and one-night stands before his first marriage and also between marriages both here and in France. RONALDO Born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1948, Ronaldo immigrated to Australia in 1951 sponsored by family that had arrived in Australia in the 1930s. After a brief stay at Bonagilla Migrant Camp in Victoria his family settled in Captain’s Flat, New South Wales, a small isolated mining town on the top of the Great Dividing Range. From a bicycle delivery boy in Wollongong, Ronaldo has had five main careers throughout his life; automotive spare parts, commercial cookery, construction, human resource management and community mental health. In his spare time he enjoys singing and acting in community groups, with a particular love of playing the fool. Ronaldo was married in Chinatown, Sydney, to his wife whom he met in a pub in Wollongong. Their son was born 28 years ago and he shares a very close and loving relationship with him. After his marriage ended he formed an intimate, romantic and sexual relationship with a man, his best friend and the love of his life. He passed away 3 years ago. More recently he has been using gay dating sites to meet men for sexual interactions and companionship.
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