About
- AGES 12+
- 90mins
A hilarious and heartfelt mother-daughter tale smashes up against the exhilarating, rough and radical world of roller derby. Real players. A live band. Take a seat, trackside.
At 16, Billie is stuck, smack in the middle of the pressure of growing up and the attempt to hold it all together. To make matters worse, she and her mum have just moved to a regional town in the centre of nothing where they have to make their own fun. It’s always been just the two of them. Them against the world. Them dancing in the supermarket. Them getting the hell out after the Very Bad Thing. But Mum’s not responding well to this ‘being still’ business. She’s spiralling through her own rebellion, until she finds her freedom… in skates and sweaty elbow pads.
Co-created by Clare Watson and Virginia Gay, Mama Does Derby is a story about stacking it and getting back up.
An immersive riot of theatre. Blood pumping, fierce and funny as. This is theatre that hits different.
A MESSAGE FROM THE WRITER / CO-CREATOR, Virginia Gay
We wanted to make something that yelled about everything that was excellent about live theatre – live music, exhilarating movement, huge heart, constant jokes, the roar of a crowd, and a heavily-sequined surprise character. You know, all the classic tropes. We wanted to make something that harnessed the electricity that went through every Australian, but I would argue particularly every Australian girl, when the Matildas got into the World Cup. We wanted to write a love letter to cool, complicated single mums and their quiet, complicated kids, and to honour that very specific time in your life where your parents stop being your heroes and start being your triggers – how that propels you apart, and how you, delicately, carefully, come back from that. We wanted to make something that acknowledged that a lot of the great teenagers we know feel like they are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders, that they have to fix the mess we’ve left for them, and what that does to a little soul, who’s also just trying to get by, make friends, keep sane, survive high school…. We wanted to talk about the anxieties that torment us, the things that stop us from sleeping at night (or haunt our dreams when we do), and we wanted to do it in the context of a comedy horror where those demons take physical forms, because Buffy actually is the most important text of my generation, and I need to pass its learnings on. And we wanted to make a show that celebrated funny, silly, wonderful, bonkers, big-hearted humans who populate small towns, extended families and roller derby leagues. It’s been such a joy making this show with Windmill, with our brilliant cast and creatives, with Clare and Ivy, with Sydney Festival and with our awesome skaters. We hope it makes you roar and cheer and throw yourself at something, physically or metaphorically.
A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR / CO-CREATOR, Clare Watson
Roller derby is a sport full of tenacious, dynamic humans who work together as a team… honing their skills, pushing themselves, constantly communicating, making the conditions just right for their jammer to fang it. The making of Mama Does Derby has felt just the same. This team is simply stellar- from every skater, actor, musician to our Windmill wonders, our courageous crew and creatives… this enormous and wonderful team have demonstrated the power of community on the daily. Our community includes the brilliant teams of Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival and Brisbane Festival, MFI and the Creative Futures Fund… a special shout out to Wendy, Kris, Louise and Ebony for getting us rolling. Mama Does Derby is dedicated to the memory of Sarah Strong-Law (Barrelhouse Bessy) who is the founder of roller derby in Adelaide in 2007. Barrelhouse Bessy chose to create a community whose ethos is ‘daggy and endearing’ we hope that we’ve met that brief. And we hope that Mama Does Derby will inspire you to be your weird, wonderful self, possibly strap on some skates and most importantly give to your community. As Frida Kahlo says “everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away”. Life is short…let’s get amongst it.
Acknowledgements
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia its principal arts investment and advisory body and the Major Festivals Initiative, in association with the Confederation of Australian International Arts Festivals Inc., commissioned by Adelaide Festival, Brisbane Festival and Sydney Festival.
Made possible through the generous support of the Windmill Studio Collective and the FWH Foundation.