MEOW MEOW’S LITTLE MERMAID

A PIAF co-commission A Malthouse Theatre and Sydney Festival production Supported by

MEDICI DONORS 11 Feb–6 Mar 2016 | perthfestival.com.au

MEOW MEOW’S LITTLE MERMAID

AUSTRALIA

WORLD PREMIERE SEASON OCTAGON THEATRE, UWA Wed 24–Sun 28 Feb This performance runs for 75 minutes, no interval

PERFORMERS

MALTHOUSE THEATRE



Meow Meow



Chris Ryan

The Siren Effect Orchestra

Jethro Woodward



Daniel Edmonds



Zoe Barry



Ralf Rehak



Mark Elton

CREATIVE TEAM Creator and Performer

Meow Meow

Director

Michael Kantor

Set and Costume Designer

Anna Cordingley

Lighting Designer

Paul Jackson

Musical Director

Jethro Woodward

Dramaturg

Tom Wright

Comedy Director

Cal McCrystal

Choreographer

Kate Denborough

Origninal compositions by

Meow Meow



Jethro Woodward



Jherek Bischoff



Iain Grandage



Kate Miller-Heidke



Amanda Palmer



Megan Washington



Thomas M Lauderdale

PRODUCTION TEAM Production Manager

David Miller

Stage Manager

Harriet Gregory

Assistant Stage Manager

Matilda Woodroofe

Lighting Realiser

Stephen Hawker

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government’s Major Festivals Initiative in association with the Confederation of Australian International Arts Festivals, Sydney Festival, Perth International Arts Festival, Malthouse Theatre and Auckland Arts Festival. Cover image: Andrew Gough

Malthouse Theatre is Melbourne’s home for performing arts that champions alternative perspectives. The company is driven by the belief that theatre should be inventive, provocative and entertaining – a unique human experience that sparks conversation about our place in the world. Malthouse Theatre makes, presents and curates contemporary theatre that isn’t afraid to explore complex personal, social and political ideas in entertaining and subversive ways. It believes theatre should push artistic boundaries. The company promotes collaboration, artists from diverse artistic and cultural backgrounds, and those who offer inventive and outspoken points of view.

PROGRAM NOTE Love. It’s the great unifier. We have all experienced love’s ecstasy, pain, comfort and longing. Even Meow Meow. She may be an international, kamikaze, post-punk superstar, but that does not mean she doesn’t have moments of vulnerability. Just as Hans Christian Andersen’s mermaid hoped for an immortal soul by sacrificing her tail and voice for a beloved on land, Meow Meow is constantly gazing out into the audience – hoping to glimpse her ‘other half’. In the process, she affords her audience a glimpse at the heart beating beneath the sequins and glitter. She has chosen an extraordinary array of music to sing her story, including originals by Megan Washington, Amanda Palmer, Iain Grandage and Kate Miller-Heidke. But it is not surprising that Meow Meow’s quest for love is expressed through music. For many of us, music and love are deeply intertwined. Over our lifetimes, we curate elaborate scores to soundtrack the giddy highs and punishing lows of our romances – turning to the most elusive of human art forms when attempting to articulate the most elusive of human emotions. Meow Meow never fails to subvert and surprise, so it is thrilling to see her in this new extravaganza. Matthew Lutton Artistic Director, Malthouse Theatre

Image: Pia Johnson

SET LIST Song 1

Wonderful Life (cover of original by Black)

Song 2

I’m Going Down (original composition for Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid –



lyrics by Meow Meow, composition by Iain Grandage)

Song 3

Making Love (original composition for Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid by Megan Washington)

Song 4

The Mysterious Girl (original composition for Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid by Kate Miller-Heidke)

Song 5

Siren Song (original composition for Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid –



lyrics by Meow Meow, composition by Iain Grandage)

Song 6

Paroles Paroles (cover originally performed by Dalida and Alain Delon)

Song 7

The Refugee (original composition for Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid by Amanda Palmer)

Song 8

Apres Moi (cover of original by Regina Spektor)

Song 9

Am Meer (cover from Franz Schubert’s Schwanengesang)

Song 10

The Truth About Love (cover of original by Dave Mccormack and the Polaroids)

Song 11

Reprise of Siren Song (original composition for Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid –



lyrics by Meow Meow, composition by Iain Grandage)

Song 12

Fake Plastic Trees (cover of original by Radiohead)

Song 13

Hotel Amour (original by Meow Meow and Thomas Lauderdale)

Song 14

Post-show music (original composition for Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid by Jherek Bischoff)

BIOGRAPHIES Meow Meow Creator and Performer Meow Meow has performed contemporary and Weimar repertoires with the London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, The New York Pops, Oregon Symphony, Barry Humphries and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and the Australian National Academy of Music. In her own creations, she has performed everywhere from the Sydney Opera House to Lincoln Center, New York, and from Berlin’s Bar Jeder Vernunft to London’s West End. Her original work has been curated by David Bowie, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Piña Bausch, and she has appeared at Boston’s Cutler Majestic Theatre in An Audience with Meow Meow, in Die sieben Todsünden with Orchestra Victoria and at SoundBox with the San Francisco Symphony. She appears next in London as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe.

Chris Ryan Performer Chris Ryan’s acting credits include Meow Meow’s Little Match Girl, Baal, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Thyestes (with The Hayloft Project), Elizabeth – Almost By Chance a Woman (Malthouse Theatre); The Present, Cyrano de Bergerac and Children of The Sun (Sydney Theatre Company); Thyestes and Measure for Measure (Belvoir); King Kong (Global Creatures); The Hypocrite (Melbourne Theatre Company); and Platonov (The Hayloft Project). He has been a co-writer for The Wild Duck (Belvoir), and appeared in the film, The Jammed, and the television series, Rake. Ryan has received nominations for a Helpmann Award and a Green Room Award. He graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a bachelor of dramatic arts.

Jethro Woodward Musical Director and The Siren Effect Orchestra Jethro Woodward is a Melbourne-based composer, musician and sound designer, recognised for his expansive and multi-layered film, theatre and dance scores. He has worked with Australia’s leading companies, including Melbourne Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, Belvoir Company B, Arena Theatre Company, Windmill Theatre, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Rawcus, Stuck Pigs Squealing, Fragment 31, Lucy Guerin Inc, Australian Dance Theatre, KAGE and more. Woodward won Green Room awards for Moth (Malthouse/

Arena), Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd (Malthouse/ Arena), Irony Is Not Enough (Fragment 31) and The Bloody Chamber (Malthouse). He was the musical director and sound designer for six-time Helpmann Award-nominated musical, The Wizard of Oz, and the multi-award winning Pinocchio.

Daniel Edmonds The Siren Effect Orchestra Daniel Edmonds is a musical director, arranger, composer and pianist. He was the musical director of Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom The Musical, as well as King Kong: Live on Stage, where he collaborated with artists including Sarah McLachlan and The Avalanches. Edmonds’ other theatrical credits include Hairspray The Musical, Fame and Chicago. He also recently composed a new score and was sound designer for La Boite Theatre Company’s The Wind in the Willows. Edmonds has composed and arranged music for short films and corporate clients, as well as performing, conducting and arranging music for many recordings, including his own debut jazz album, Walking With Lions.

Zoë Barry The Siren Effect Orchestra Zoë Barry is a cellist, composer and theatre-maker. Recently, she has performed with John Cale and toured with Missy Higgins, Gurrumul and Stars of the Lid. Barry is a member of The Letter String Quartet, dedicated to creating new music for strings and voice. Her film composition credits include The Infinite Man and Ukraine Is Not a Brothel (AACTA Best Documentary), both composed with Jed Palmer, and a restoration of Metropolis with The New Pollutants (MONA, Sydney Opera House). Theatre composition credits include Patch Theatre’s awardwinning Me and My Shadow and Emily Loves to Bounce, while directing credits include Restless Dance Theatre’s Howling Like a Wolf and The Boy Who Loved Tiny Things.

Ralf Rehak The Siren Effect Orchestra Ralf Rehak is a musician, architect and visual artist, based in Melbourne. He has experience as a session and touring drummer/ percussionist with various producers, artists and bands, including Machine Translations, Shane O’Mara, Jess Ribeiro, Rob Snarski and Tim Rogers. Rehak recently recorded drums, backing vocals and percussion for J Walker’s latest and forthcoming album. His live performance experience dates back to the age of seven when he began private tuition and

Image: Pia Johnson

playing drums in a small, regional town duo with his mother, concert pianist Edith Margaret Crellin. From then on, Rehak’s training in jazz, big band and orchestral music expanded across other music genres, including funk, soul, ska, folk and alternative rock.

Mark Elton The Siren Effect Orchestra Mark Elton has established himself as one of Australia’s leading musicians. A highly regarded multiinstrumentalist, he has travelled extensively, played with some of the world’s best musicians and earned recognition on the international stage. Elton is a member of legendary Melbourne bands, The Hoodangers, Blue Grassy Knoll and The Furbelows. He specialises in double bass but is equally at home on electric bass, sousaphone and tuba. He effortlessly crosses genres and while jazz is his home, he also loves theatre. At the conclusion of the tour of Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid, Elton is hitting the road with Adam Harvey and Catherine Britt in the Johnny Cash tribute, The Man in Black.

Michael Kantor Director Michael Kantor was the artistic director of Malthouse Theatre from 2005 to 2010. Malthouse Theatre credits include Sleeping Beauty, The Ham Funeral, Not Like Beckett, Journal of the Plague Year, Babes in the Wood, The Odyssey (with Melbourne Festival and Perth International Arts Festival), Through the Looking Glass (with Victorian Opera), Vamp, Woyzeck, Optimism (with Sydney Theatre Company/Sydney Festival/Edinburgh International Festival), Happy Days, Elizabeth – Almost by Chance a Woman, The Threepenny Opera (with Sydney Theatre Company), and A Golem Story. Kantor’s first feature film, The Boy Castaways, premiered at the Adelaide International Film Festival in 2015.

Anna Cordingley Set and costume designer Anna Cordingley’s design credits include, for Sydney Festival, Masquerade and Meow Meow’s Little Match Girl (with Malthouse Theatre); for Victorian Opera, Sunday in the Park with George; for Bell Shakespeare, Tartuffe, Phèdre, Macbeth and Julius Caesar; for Chunky Move, An Act of Now and Connected; and for Malthouse Theatre, A Golem Story, Sappho… in 9 Fragments, The Threepenny Opera (with Sydney Theatre Company), Elizabeth – Almost By Chance a Woman, One Night

the Moon, Knives in Hens (with State Theatre Company of South Australia) and Happy Days (with Belvoir). Cordingley has received two Green Room awards and the Kristian Fredrikson Memorial Scholarship for contribution to the performing arts in Australia.

Paul Jackson Lighting designer Paul Jackson has designed lighting for The Australian Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Melbourne Theatre Company, West Australian Ballet, Victorian Opera, West Australian Opera, Sydney Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare, Playbox Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, Belvoir, Phillip Adams BalletLab, Lucy Guerin Inc, World of WearableArt in New Zealand, La Mama Theatre, Not Yet It’s Difficult, Chamber Made Opera and many others.

Tom Wright Dramaturg Tom Wright has written many plays and adaptations, including A Journal of the Plague Year, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Castle, Ubu, This Is a True Story, Lorelei, Medea, Babes in the Wood, Puntila and His Man Matti, Tense Dave (2004 PIAF), The Odyssey (2006 PIAF), The Lost Echo, Criminology (with Lally Katz), Tales from the Vienna Woods, The Women of Troy, The War of the Roses (2009 PIAF), The Duel, Baal, Optimism, Oresteia, On the Misconception of Oedipus, The Histrionic and Black Diggers (2015 PIAF). He has worked as an actor and director at theatre companies across the country, as well as at Australian and international festivals. He was associate director of Sydney Theatre Company from 2004 to 2012. Wright’s work has won many awards, including a Gold Drama Award (British Radio Academy), BBC Radio Drama Award, and several Helpmann and Green Room awards.

Images: Pia Johnson

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