Three women meet in a public bathroom.
One is in an abusive relationship, another is terrified about coming on too strong in a recent date and the third has been promoted for her dream job. Together they sing about their shared histories, traumas and fantasies with music from Puccini, Mozart and Bizet.
Here, Co-Creator and Producer Thomas De Angelis pens an open letter about the show.
“'Chamber Pot Opera' is an all-female pasticcio opera – basically the 'Mamma Mia!' of opera – using the best arias from the best operas to tell a contemporary story about three women who meet in the QVB bathroom late one night. It was a collaboration between Clemence Williams, Keiren Brandt-Sawdy and myself and is produced by Samuel Boneham, through our theatre company, Bontom.
'Chamber Pot Opera' was conceived by Clemence Williams, a young director and NIDA graduate, who had studied classical voice at the Conservatorium. She was frustrated at how awfully women are treated in opera: they generally have no agency; all their problems are solved by men; and they normally end up raped or dead by the closing number. Together, we set about creating an opera in which the female characters in the story solved their own problems, found salvation in other women and did so outside the male gaze. We created an opera that wove together three stories: that of a young victim of domestic violence, a high-flying corporate executive and a queer woman who thought her first date had gone terribly wrong. All three entered the bathroom to find a solace, safety and sanctuary.
Despite the challenges inherent in staging an opera in a Ladies Powder room, the Queen Victoria Building has been supportive of our production. In November 2016, we staged the show for a week and it was completely sold out. Off the back of that success, the production toured to Adelaide this year for the Fringe Festival, where it received a five-star review from the Adelaide Advertiser. Now it’s on again in Sydney, until 22 July. The proceeds from this production will go towards taking the whole production team to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival there in August. At this point, we look set to meet our target budget to achieve this – a pretty remarkable achievement for an independent theatre production. Not a single person involved will have to pay for the experience to perform internationally and represent their country… In a toilet.
Every night, the audience enters the bathroom with highly diverse expectations. I’ve heard all the jokes, from men and women and it doesn’t matter what night of the week it is, the audience believes that they’re doing something a little bit bizarre. There’s excitement, anticipation and outright scepticism that this opera in a bathroom could be any good. And I think that’s the reason why the show has done so well. The audience is primed for anything – and they end up witnessing something stunning and some amazing performances by Sally Alrich-Smythe, Britt Lewis, and Jessica Westcott.
I think what people love about this show is (of course) the gimmick of it being set in a bathroom but also the reasons behind that gimmick. It wouldn’t have had the same effect if we’d staged it in a conventional theatre and built a bathroom set. The whole point of making the story contemporary was to bring it into to the lives of the audience. Setting it in an actual bathroom brought it that much closer to the lived realities of the people who see the show, particularly women. This opera is accessible, contemporary and cheap to see – all things that most operas aren’t.
'Chamber Pot Opera' had three strengths: first, it was deliberately entertaining, with a richness and breadth to its likeability and its accessibility. I don’t think theatre made for theatre-makers will ever sell out and this was a show for opera novices and aficionados alike. Second, 'Chamber Pot Opera' told a story that people were prepared to engage with on a deeper, possibly even empathetic, level. The audience was invited to see themselves in the characters on stage, to laugh when those characters laughed and to fear what they feared. This may have meant at times that the audience got scared or even horrified by what they saw in the show – and that’s something that good theatre has the ability to do in a completely safe environment. Finally, I think 'Chamber Pot Opera' was different – not even original – compared to what people understood opera to be. In producing this show, we challenged the audience’s expectations of what theatre could be, and what theatre could do.
'Chamber Pot Opera' has enjoyed success due to the efforts of a talented team, including Clemence Williams, Keiren Brandt-Sawdy, Sam Boneham, Sally Alrich-Smythe, Britt Lewis, Jessica Westcott, Darci Gayford, Michelle Sverdloff, Jen Parsonage, Benjamin Brockman and Isabel Hudson. We are so proud to bringing a this high artform to such a low space, and to be touring our little show to big places.”
– Thomas De Angelis
'Chamber Pot Opera' was conceived by Clemence Williams, a young director and NIDA graduate, who had studied classical voice at the Conservatorium. She was frustrated at how awfully women are treated in opera: they generally have no agency; all their problems are solved by men; and they normally end up raped or dead by the closing number. Together, we set about creating an opera in which the female characters in the story solved their own problems, found salvation in other women and did so outside the male gaze. We created an opera that wove together three stories: that of a young victim of domestic violence, a high-flying corporate executive and a queer woman who thought her first date had gone terribly wrong. All three entered the bathroom to find a solace, safety and sanctuary.
Despite the challenges inherent in staging an opera in a Ladies Powder room, the Queen Victoria Building has been supportive of our production. In November 2016, we staged the show for a week and it was completely sold out. Off the back of that success, the production toured to Adelaide this year for the Fringe Festival, where it received a five-star review from the Adelaide Advertiser. Now it’s on again in Sydney, until 22 July. The proceeds from this production will go towards taking the whole production team to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival there in August. At this point, we look set to meet our target budget to achieve this – a pretty remarkable achievement for an independent theatre production. Not a single person involved will have to pay for the experience to perform internationally and represent their country… In a toilet.
Every night, the audience enters the bathroom with highly diverse expectations. I’ve heard all the jokes, from men and women and it doesn’t matter what night of the week it is, the audience believes that they’re doing something a little bit bizarre. There’s excitement, anticipation and outright scepticism that this opera in a bathroom could be any good. And I think that’s the reason why the show has done so well. The audience is primed for anything – and they end up witnessing something stunning and some amazing performances by Sally Alrich-Smythe, Britt Lewis, and Jessica Westcott.
I think what people love about this show is (of course) the gimmick of it being set in a bathroom but also the reasons behind that gimmick. It wouldn’t have had the same effect if we’d staged it in a conventional theatre and built a bathroom set. The whole point of making the story contemporary was to bring it into to the lives of the audience. Setting it in an actual bathroom brought it that much closer to the lived realities of the people who see the show, particularly women. This opera is accessible, contemporary and cheap to see – all things that most operas aren’t.
'Chamber Pot Opera' had three strengths: first, it was deliberately entertaining, with a richness and breadth to its likeability and its accessibility. I don’t think theatre made for theatre-makers will ever sell out and this was a show for opera novices and aficionados alike. Second, 'Chamber Pot Opera' told a story that people were prepared to engage with on a deeper, possibly even empathetic, level. The audience was invited to see themselves in the characters on stage, to laugh when those characters laughed and to fear what they feared. This may have meant at times that the audience got scared or even horrified by what they saw in the show – and that’s something that good theatre has the ability to do in a completely safe environment. Finally, I think 'Chamber Pot Opera' was different – not even original – compared to what people understood opera to be. In producing this show, we challenged the audience’s expectations of what theatre could be, and what theatre could do.
'Chamber Pot Opera' has enjoyed success due to the efforts of a talented team, including Clemence Williams, Keiren Brandt-Sawdy, Sam Boneham, Sally Alrich-Smythe, Britt Lewis, Jessica Westcott, Darci Gayford, Michelle Sverdloff, Jen Parsonage, Benjamin Brockman and Isabel Hudson. We are so proud to bringing a this high artform to such a low space, and to be touring our little show to big places.”
– Thomas De Angelis
