Betty Grumble belongs to the universe. She is a singing, dancing, howling and loving cabaret du Sex Clown.
This October, head down to Arts House in North Melbourne to see Grumble in Enemies of Grooviness Eat Sh!t – a poetic portal, tribute, rock n roll performance art collision, love scene and revenge fantasy.
After a decade of playing within her spiritual access point and avatar, Betty Grumble performance artist Emma Maye Gibson re-emerges, bringing Enemies of Grooviness Eat Sh!t back to the stage as a mantric wish.
Enemies of Grooviness Eat Sh!t – Betty Grumble
- Produced by Performing Lines. Presented by Arts House and Melbourne Fringe
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17 – 21 October 2023 at 8.30pm. Duration 90 minutes
- Wed 18 Sep – Auslan interpreted performance + post-show artist talk
- Tickets: $35 Standard ticket + booking fee, $20 Reduced ticket + booking fee, $10 BLAKTIX + booking fee
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Venue: Arts House – North Melbourne Town Hall, 521 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne
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Bookings: artshouse.com.au
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Emma Maye Gibson (AKA Betty Grumble) is a Warrane/Sydney-based performance artist. Largely through the avatar/war mask/love letter/critter of Betty Grumble, she engages her body as a medicinal site of performative catharsis, often in a genre smash of ritual physical theatre, cabaret, performance art and multi-media. She is a proud ecosexual and believes in the spiritual powers of live space.
Gibson returns Grumble to perform an unfurling of the eco-feminist seeping carapace that gave her a way to heal, feel and defy the damn enemies of grooviness that keep her, them, you, all of us down.
“Betty has held me, and at this threshold of maturation, I let her become and unbecome me. Thank You Body!” says Gibson. Enemies of Grooviness Eat Sh!t confronts violence under an eco-feminist lens, harnessing rage and hope energy as weapons and medicines in the battle/quest for justice.
Audiences will honour the legacy of makers, mentors, friends, lovers and ‘enemies’ that formed an ecosystem of aliveness within the perils of eco-grief and structures that certainly no longer serve us.
“This is a self-reflective, regenerative dive into the compost bin of making and moving through the trouble – it defies the ever-present cultures of violence and ecocide. It will be an unshaming dance and a chance to allow ourselves to be seen. Let’s have fun” says Gibson.
An ongoing womanifesto, Enemies of Grooviness Eat Sh!t flies in the face of censorship and taboo around women’s bodies and how they are meant to behave.
Arts House Co-Artistic Directors, Emily Sexton and Nithya Nagarajan, say that so many people have been longing for this work to be shared with Melbourne.
“We are thrilled to finally welcome Betty to Arts House and Naarm. Do not sleep on these tickets – this will prove to be a real highlight of the 2023 Melbourne Fringe,” claimed Sexton and Nagarajan.
Enemies of Grooviness Eat Sh!t is a sensual, surreal and sublime experience. It exists as a healing balm and road map for action in times of inaction and paralysis.
Bookings: artshouse.com.au.
