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By Naomi Edwards
Saturday 12th March 2005: Things to do list for today - finalise musicians
for Melbourne season of 'Trash', sort out venue hire for the Edinburgh
season, go to Portobello Road market for olives for our farewell dinner,
come up with a sponsorship plan, nap.
I sit here in my West London flat in the room where we wrote "Trash" - a
dramatic musical cabaret about a man discovering his true fabulousness after
one-too-many in an airport transit bar. We are bringing the results of this
six month collaboration between the truly fabulous man diva Wes Snelling,
composer Ben Hillyard, dramaturg Megan Price and me as director to Melbourne
to preview before flying into Edinburgh.
 I
went to uni with Wes. I watched him butterfly from his third year lead as a
brilliant tormented Macbeth into an extraordinary cabaret performer and
comedian so many years on. His drive as a performer, writer, producer and
director has always inspired me. He’s done it all on his shows The Pot
and the Kettle, Extravaganza, More Me Less You and this
year Gei Sha La La. His charming stage presence and self defacing
glamour has always intrigued me as a director. I have always wanted to take
him away from the deadlines of the Melbourne comedy-fringe-comedy festival
roundabout and simply write a show.
So. On one hand I had a cabaret comedian wanting to make a bigger show and
on the other, a talented composer busting to write a musical, but needing
the story, the characters, the words. British Ben Hillyard, a wonderful
musician, had his interest in writing for theatre fuelled by playing in
various show orchestras. I was heading back to London, following my own
yellow brick road to work with a start up producer, directing new musicals.
If Wes was coming to London, we could write a show there. We were both sure
that there was a more lively musical cabaret scene than in Melbourne, with
more of a chance to get work up.
We both watched the making of American cult hit Hedwig. John Cameron
Mitchell, creator of Hedwig, started performing his transsexual rock star at
open mic punk nights in New York, the character growing in performance. With
no money and no one to pick it up, they set up a theatre in the basement of
a hotel (incidentally, the one where the Titanic’s passengers and crew were
meant to stay) in New York’s then grotty meat market district. With low
overheads and the ability to build a following, a unique and individual
piece of musical theatre emerged. We too wanted to build "Trash" from the
ground up.
In very little time we had a handful of great songs, a plot, a map of the
show’s structure. Fuelled by the first inspired rush, we formed the boys
into a duo to gig the material and see how it worked. But without a demo in
London’s limited and competitive live music scene, we couldn’t get a gig.
With no big-name performer, a collaborative track record, alumni networks
(or rich relatives to invest,) the opportunities to keep moving forward were
thin. We wanted to make "Trash" by performing it, partly because I knew Wes
was at his core a performer, and at his most inspired in front of an
audience; and partly because I had been working with writers in London and
NY, all of whom had written the huge scale musical and were now shopping
them around to producers, festivals and competitions trying to get them
done. One inspired piece in particular now is sitting on my shelf, after I
directed workshop versions of it in London’s new "Musical Futures" festival,
and in Michigan and Chicago. It sadly is not going anywhere. My start up
producer failed to turn the key on it and other projects. The equation I
observed - if you want something produced, you have to do it yourself.
To make the show happen on our tiny resources, we stripped it back to one
setting, Wes and a mute barperson. We’d gone from full scale book musical to
cabaret in one fell swoop, the themes and content remaining. Wes and Ben
performed it in this very lounge room, to friends and fellow artists. We got
the feedback we needed – genuinely critical and insightful as only talented
peers can give. The energy created by the piece in our bare London flat was
all the feedback I needed. My hunch was right. We had made something very
special.
Wes’s struggle to survive in London both artistically and financially was
taking its toll. The image of a lively scene and loads of opportunities had
long been thwarted, replaced by long hours at a call centre and supply
teaching. A walk through the West End’s sign posted ‘Theatreland’ soon
reveals theatres packed with adaptations, jukebox musicals and imports from
Broadway. Take a step down and the best theatres for fringe musicals are
either closing down or offering workshop stagings for which competition is
fierce.
With Wes travelling back to Melbourne to do his new comedy show Gei Sha
La La, we decided to preview the show in Melbourne where we had love and
support (and the bums on seats of family, friends and peers,) good deals and
a confidence that Melbourne audiences will hopefully get into the show. Not
to mention a press release beginning ‘Direct from London….’ Right now the
global life of "Trash" is paying off – ‘oh yes, we’ve written this show in
London,’ ‘ooo London/West End/Cats,’ and ‘Ah yes, we’re previewing in
Melbourne before taking it to Edinburgh,’ ‘ooo Melbourne/Comedy
Festival/Sunshine.’
"Trash" is previewing in
Melbourne before we premiere it at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Everest of
arts festivals. Edinburgh for us is a supermarket of performance for
producers and programmers. Add to things to do: exploit the romantic notion
of somewhere else.
We did a final read through of the show before Wes left to work on comedy
festival events and his other show a couple of weeks back. Just as we
finished the read through, it began to snow. We were in London, and had just
finished writing a musical which we were about to bring home. Other thing to
do today – have a champagne in the airport bar on the way home.
Naomi Edwards |