If you like your theatre experiences varied, how's this for an evening's entertainment? Take a punk-rock reworking of Hamlet and add the musings of a bathtub philosopher together with a performance art piece reminding us that behind our masks, we are just animals. Throw in an after-show dance party and a bar – together with a complimentary pre-show drink – and Shadow House Party, coming soon to the Courtyard Studio, sounds like something a little out of the ordinary.
It unites three Canberra companies, KREWD, Shadow House PITS and Acoustic Theatre Troupe, in their first collaboration as a trio.
Acoustic Theatre Troupe's artistic director Lucy Matthews says she was talking to KREWD's founder Bambi Valentine last year about a new show she wanted to perform in January. Valentine suggested teaming up with her and Joe Woodward's Shadow House PITS for a theatre festival and it grew from there, with many cast members crossing over between Matthews and Valentine's productions.
KREWD's works – on its own or in co-productions – look at the beautiful and the grotesque in humanity and how they are often interchangeable and A KREWD Incarnate is no exception. As the audience members enter the pre-show, the cast are posed as "sexy animal installations – looking at humanity, we're really just animals", Valentine says.
Audience members can collect a complimentary drink and interact with the posed animal installations until 7.30pm when Valentine says "the installations take on new energy" and things become more extreme in the show, in which they regress to an animal-like state.
