No Matter Where You Go, There You Are - Upcoming Fringe Show

Theatre is a medium that is there for manipulating and for experimentation. In recent times the very “liveness” of theatre is being challenged in both form and content. One such project is to be concurrently performed in October in Ireland and Melbourne as part of two Fringe Festivals. Jenny W has created a spliced work in a show that is not only multi-media/interdisciplinary in form but is multicultural/intercontinental in content.

In this quote from her blog Jenny describes what she is trying to achieve with the performance: “The show will be performed in Australia and Ireland in October of this year. One half of the show in each country will be live and the other half will be filmed. There is an Australian actress living in Ireland (myself) who will be performing live in Ireland and by film in Australia and an Irish actress living in Australia (Cathy) who will be performing live in Australia and by film in Ireland.

The performance will then of course have two audiences and two very different incarnations and potentially quite different responses.

In spite of this dialectic to a certain degree this show is not based on highlighting difference and separating experience, it is in fact a unique way of connecting. Jenny writes on her blog of this intention: – “The idea is that we 'meet' and share our stories of travel and migration through the theatre piece” – and also practically the realisations along the way of how she and Cathy worked together across the world

So of course what is equally interesting and exciting about this show is not just the dual presentation but the cohesiveness and the connections that are drawn between the two halves of this performance – the meeting and sharing of the stories.

The theatre company that is working on this production can be found on this website: http://rsvpireland.webs.com/ and Jenny has been keeping a great blog about her experiences in filming her section for the Australian performance and the writing process http://nomatterwhereyougothereyouare.blogspot.com/. This show certainly has an intriguing format with the potential to be applied to other stories and theatre works. If you are in Melbourne or Wexford do books tickets to see the performance and stay tuned for perhaps further exciting incarnations from this promising theatre maker.

Please support the production, "No Matter Where You Go, There You Are", at the 2012 Melbourne Fringe and Wexford Fringe Festivals. You can donate at http://www.fundit.ie/project/no-matter-where-you-go-there-you-are for Irish donations or http://www.pozible.co.uk/index.php/archive/index/1482/description/0/0 for Australian donations.

Note: I would totally love to see this show and as I sit in my room listening to mad freshers outside singing in that slightly mad tone of first night sloshing I really wish I could be watching this tonight instead of just writing about it. So see it!