DoubleSpeak
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DoubleSpeak

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After successful seasons at the 2015 Melbourne Fringe Festival and 2015 Frankston Anywhere Festival, the work has been invited to restage at the Footscray Community Arts Centre, as part of their Art and Activism month during May. As ensemble member of The DIG Collective and co-deviser of this production, Alex Talamo explains, it’s an exciting and rare opportunity to be able to bring the piece back, particularly with theatre being such an ephemeral medium.

 

We discuss the inspiration for this work. It comes from a feeling that even though it might be easy to have difficult conversations inside our immediate circles – with those who share our beliefs and outlook on life – it can be hard to articulate ourselves in difficult conversations outside of these safe places.

 

Articulation is integral for understanding and rigorous debate, says Talamo, and in Australia, we have a problem with this. One instance that particularly got The DIG Collective thinking was a debate between politicians Penny Wong and Joe Hockey on the ABC’S Q&A program in 2012. The conversation surrounded same-sex marriage.

 

“Both parties have really personal connections to the issue,” he says. “Penny Wong obviously has a same-sex partner, and Joe Hockey has a particular religious belief that informs how he views the topic. However, neither of them were able to articulate to the general public nor to each other what their arguments were in any considered way.”

 

DoubleSpeak endeavours to shed light on not only how we have conversations, but also how we perceive them. This dialogue driven performance follows a discussion between two characters on the topic of where they were on the night of the election, and this discussion is retold multiple times to the audience in different ways. These different perspectives promote the audience to question what it is each performer is saying and what it truly means.

 

“The first retelling is a direct address to the audience from the two different performers,” Talamo  explains. “The next time the conversation happens, it’s with each other. Then there’s an interrogation scene and so we look at language in relation to that power dynamic, and there’s a collaborative story telling experience as well.”

 

In hindsight, Talamo says, The DIG Collective is obsessed with repetition. They believe it offers a lot in terms of having a multiplicity of voices and really getting to the brunt of an issue.

 

Not wanting to appear one-sided however, the company has gone to great lengths to involve audience input in the performance. It comes in the form of pre-recorded voice messages left by members of the public on a dedicated hotline service that are played throughout the performance.

 

“The performance posed some questions about who we’re representing as Australian voices,” Talamo  says. “The two performers we have are white, middle class Australians and we felt that that wasn’t an appropriate representation for this topic, so with this hotline… we’re trying to include as much external input as possible in terms of what other voices and thoughts are out there.”

 

The input has allowed the company to think more broadly about the issue, and in fact, they are still on the lookout for people’s opinions and stories. So if it takes your fancy, you can still call the hotline (0451 051 681) where you’ll hear a brief message and then you can leave your thoughts.

 

Accessibility is another high priority for this theatre group. Every effort has been made for their production to be as accessible as possible for those with a disability. Historically, mainstage groups such as MTC and Malthouse have been better able to incorporate accessibility into their budgets. But for smaller, independent companies such as The DIG Collective, providing accessibility can come at a prohibitive cost.

 

Although a huge task, Talamo  explains that making DoubleSpeak as accessible as possible to those who are blind or with vision impairment was something the team wanted to tackle.

 

“We put a significant figure in our budget towards developing a technology that would mean independent companies could offer this,” she explains.

 

What has resulted is the pioneering of a new wire technology, which is used to aurally describe the scene to a blind or low-vision theatregoer – a testament to the zeal of this group as well as their ethos. 

 

Having an open and honest conversation about how we have conversations is at the heart of this play. It’s not unknown that Australia experiences an array of problems that don’t have easy solutions to them, but The DIG Collective are passionate that they will not be solved by shying away from having some tough discussions – so that’s where DoubleSpeak comes in.

 

BY ABBEY LEW-KEE