“David is one of those sickening, multi-talented people,” says dancer Chelsea McGuffin of her partner Carberry. For this year’s Fringe, Carberry has whipped up an inspired adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes From Underground into his production Sediment, which will run as part of the Boardwalk Republic’s annual circus season at Gasworks.
Notes for the Underground, also known as Letters from the Underworld, was written by Russian writer Dostoyevsky in 1864. Renowned as one of the first existentialist novels, it follows the bitter ramblings of a public servant known as the Underground Man. It’s also a discourse on free will – the push and pull nature of which lends itself to this circus adaption.
“Adaptation is new for us – we usually take inspiration from pictures or movies or things that have happened in our lives,” explains McGuffin. “For those that haven’t read the book, it’s not a very linear story, but we’ve taken a lot of Dostoyevsky’s notes from the first half of the book and used them to create physical pieces”.
Sediment had its premiere season in Brisbane before traveling to this year’s Fringe, with the performance attracting both lovers of dance and Dostoyevsky to its first shows. It begs the question though, why Dostoyevsky?
“There is a kind of cult following for Dostoyevsky and Notes From Underground,” McGuffin reflects. “But I think for David, it really resonated – there was something personal for him about truth, life and feelings, and how we perceive ourselves versus how we present ourselves in the wider world. He’s really used it as inspiration for a piece, so it’s not necessarily a straight re-telling of Dostoyevsky’s story”.
A classically trained dancer, McGuffin later transitioned to circus performance like Carberry. Sediment draws heavily upon both disciplines. McGuffin’s stand-in for the Fringe shows (she is unable to perform due to pregnancy) is also a Flying Fruit Fly graduate, though the performance is most likely more subdued than many would expect from a circus-dance performance.
“Audiences like to see work that is investigating something new,” notes McGuffin. “Our show has a really strong circus-skill base, but it also explores movement and we always use live music which is core to where our style of performance comes from. We do get a range of people coming to the show, whether it’s for the music or performance aspects or just for the book and story.”
Having travelled to Melbourne a few years ago previously to perform at the Spiegeltent, this will also be McGuffin and Carberry’s first Fringe show. “Melbourne is really the show’s first outing for a full season” says McGuffin, “When it premiered in Brisbane we had just four shows but we’ll be doing two and a half weeks of shows for Fringe. It’s exciting and nerve-wracking”.
BY HANNAH JOYNER
Venue: Gasworks – The Big House
Dates: September 14 – October 1 (except Sundays and Mondays)
Time: 9pm (September 14 – September 17), 8pm (September 20 – October 1)
Tickets: $15 – $31
