Taking a cue from the high-drama world of pro wrestling, The Strangeways Ensemble puts workplace bullying and discrimination in a chokehold in their new, original work 'Trash Talk'.
An entity of Wollongong's Merrigong Theatre Company, Strangeways Ensemble is made up of seven performers perceived to have intellectual disability. In 'Trash Talk', they explore their personal experiences working in Australian Disability Enterprises (ADE) using a mix of naturalistic theatre and highly stylised physical theatre.
“There's six male performers and one female in the ensemble so there's a lot of male energy and most of them had an interest either as kids or still have an interest in WWE [World Wrestling Entertainment],” 'Trash Talk' Director Anne-Louise Rentell says.
“I'd never paid much attention to WWE to be honest so I looked into it and found a world of high theatrics and silliness. The beauty of it is that they keep their audiences because those dramas continue across like an ongoing saga, like a soap opera on steroids.”
In development since last year, 'Trash Talk' follows on from Strangeways' last work 'The Outside Man' and continues the ensemble's growing use of fusing realism and fantasy.
“One of the things we discussed as an ensemble about what our style of work was, is that we like to work in hyperrealities,” Anne-Louise says, “and the last show we did was set in a hyperreality, cabaret space where all the characters were heightened, it wasn't naturalistic at all.”
Anne-Louise goes on to explain how 'Trash Talk' utilises the blend of naturalistic theatre and the drama of pro wrestling to illuminate the difficult interpersonal dynamics of any workplace, ADE or otherwise.
“We work between two spaces,” she says. “We work in a very naturalistic space, which is the story of the workplace and the tensions that boil up in that workplace.”
“As they rise they spill over into this hyperreality where [the cast] enact their tensions out as heightened characters, not as their characters in the workplace. That's a way to explore it in a fun way with physical theatrics to it but it's also a nice way to talk about it. . . You can play with being didactic without being didactic.”
The antics and tropes of pro wrestling allow The Strangeways Ensemble to not only express their own experiences but also play with ideas about work that apply to people from all walks of life.
“Once you step into the hyperreality you can take it to the next level and those big-picture ideas can be talked about more freely,” Anne-Louise says.
“Why do we work? What is the future of work anyway? For anybody, not just people with disabilities, what is the future of the workforce? You get to talk about all those things when you're in that hyperreality.”
'Trash Talk' also reflects on the much wider problem of bullying, a problem that often starts in the schoolyard and inevitably carries over to the workplace.
“We talk about that actually, [the ensemble] talk about it a lot – how when you're growing up with a disability and you have certain words thrown at you in the schoolyard, you think once you grow up and move somewhere else that will stop, but it doesn't.”
