Company 2 combines with musicians Ben Walsh and jazz virtuoso Matt Ottington playing with The Crusty Suitcase Band to produce something McGuffin says looks and sounds like ‘gypsy junk.’ “It’s slowly evolved; it’s become much more complex and theatrical. Basically it’s a fun friendly vibe. The Crusty Suitcase Band has a particular look and sound with basses horns trombones and tubas. Our aesthetic is vintage, older carnies era. We work with junkshop stuff you’d find in an old suitcase, gypsy junk with wooden things as props. Our costumes are made from curtains we found at the op shop. Our sound is a junkyard drum kit, falling apart. We’re creating the mood of a spit and sawdust whisky joint.”
Musically, the score reflect the antics of the performers in a way that the symbiosis between music and movement is central, a reflection of how the show has actually come together. “It really is talent we know thrown together; the show’s got this feeling of people who know each other well,” says McGuffin. “We’ve known The Crusty Suitcase Band for a couple of years. My partner, who’s in the show, and I, we always go to see them at Woodford. We put an application for Woodford, funded it – we got friends, family, pets involved and that’s how Scotch + Soda became a thing.” However, things are not quite as random as it might sound. “There are narratives,” says McGuffin. “It’s written and scripted now. The stories have grown from our actual friendships. It’s led by the music. We were already mucking around with dance. There are so many of us and we grow it from there. The characters have journeys to go on and interactions along the way. But it’s not like an A leading to B leading to C and D type of narrative. Everybody’s got different journeys. And the audience members get to join in. You get feel like you’re inside a gypsy jazz party. Everyone can sing and dance along – be part of the party. We want you to walk out feeling like you’ve run away to the circus. The more people sing and dance along, the better it will be. You’ve got to have fun.”
McGuffin says no-one else is doing anything similar to Scotch + Soda. The performance, which includes acrobatics, tricks, group based acts, group bikes and a teeterboard, is designed to take place on a very small stage. “We try to fit it on onto the smallest stage possible,” say McGuffin. A teeterboard is just what it sounds like. “You bounce up and down like a seesaw. We’ve got ladders, boxes, trapeze, bottle walking, acrobatics, handstands and fights. And a bird act with my three budgies. It’s a tight squeeze to get everyone – there are 11 of us – on stage. We are constantly developing new ways of using circus.” Have there been any raised eyebrows regarding her use of live animals? “I’ve only had one person, in Sydney, who told me I shouldn’t be using the birds; they were determined to have the budgies taken off the stage. They’re our family pets, they’re not highly trained. I have a relationship with the budgies. It’s not like I’ve got them on any special diet or making them do crazy tricks or anything. It’s really just about play – it comes down to something quite sweet and beautiful. It’s a really magical moment.”
Who does McGuffin like to see when she has time to go to the circus herself? “I love to see a mixture of all sorts, from Cirque de Soleil to Acrobat.” The eclectic and unpredictable nature of the musical aspect really appeals to McGuffin, it’s how she likes things to be and is inevitably the way her shows go anyhow. “One of the great things about working with Ben Walsh is that he is always improvising. There’s a new instrument every day. You can never tie Ben down to anything. He’s always twisting and playing and adjusting and experimenting. It’s exciting. He’ll play all sorts of bizarre things, if he can bang on it he will. He’ll call the music and make changes, right on the night if he can see something developing so it’s really live and happening.”
The big challenge is the fact that everything’s handmade so to speak. “We do it all ourselves, the backdrops, the costumes, developing the acts, we’re producing it all ourselves, we do all the marketing.”
BY LIZA DEZFOULI
