'The Retreat' / Sub30 Collective [Friday 10th June at Wyndham Cultural Centre]
Devised entirely on Zoom during the 2020 lockdowns, hybrid film/theatre work ‘The Retreat’ interrogates the underbelly of power.
Who holds the power? Who decides that? Is it worth the sacrifices you must succumb to? Written and performed by Western Edge’s ensemble Sub30 Collective, “The Retreat” considers five young promising creatives desperate to get into showbiz, who come to question how far they’re really willing to go.
Featuring Yaw Dadzie, Betiel Beyin, Leigh Lule, Michael Logo, Amarachi Okorom and Ras-Samuel Welda’abzgi, directed by Tariro Mavondo and Penny Harpham and filmed and edited by Harry Charnock and The Mountain Goats, you can watch the premiere of the show on Friday the 10th of June, at Wyndham Cultural Centre, Werribee.
Read an interview with Penny Harpham, Executive Director of the Western Edge Performing Arts Company below.
Image by Atong Atem
What is Western Edge and how did it come to be?
Western Edge is a not for profit performing arts organisation working with young people from across Melbourne’s West to tell their own stories in their own way with their own voice. It was founded in 2005 and has since grown to work with young people from all across the West in schools, community hubs and centres and into the arts sector through a newly developed Level Up Professional Development program.
What are some of the success stories from graduates of Western Edge?
So many! Michael Logo joined the company in 2016 through our community theatre program and has just finished shooting a Binge television show, Colin From Accounts by Patrick Brammel. Amarachi Okorom joined the company through the Wyndham Edge community theatre program and has since been nominated by Griffin Theatre in their national playwriting award, accepted into the Malthouse Besen Writer's Program, MTC's Next Stage program and is now Western Edge's Artistic Associate; Betiel Beyin and Leigh Lule joined the company in 2018 and are now writing for the ABC; Ras-Samuel Welda'abgzi joined in 2018 and has just been cast in a new Disney Plus series; Yaw Dadzie joined over 10 years ago and is now performing music all over the city and is Lead Artist of the company.. the list goes on and on!
What is the best thing about working at Western Edge?
At Western Edge we live by our mottos - 'Happy Failure' and Come As You Are. We bring our whole selves to work and we work with where young people are at every day. All cultures, faiths, sexualities, beliefs and backgrounds are welcome in our rooms. And our art is that much richer for it.
What and who are the Sub30 Collective?
The Sub30 Collective are the first group to go through our Level up Professional Development program. They have been training for 2 years with the company, including working with Malthouse Theatre, leading industry teachers and coaches and learning how to devise, write and act in theatre and film.
Tell us what the film 'The Retreat' is about?
‘The Retreat’ is a new film/ theatre hybrid created by the Sub30 Collective during the lockdowns of 2020 and shot over a weekend at The Substation in Newport once the second lockdown had lifted. It follows a week in the life of five young artists, desperate to break into the business of showbiz. They sign up to the Great Denzel Stallone’s ‘Artist Retreat’ with hopes of becoming his champion and sky-rocketing their careers. But it becomes clear that this tranquil mountainside getaway is not what it seems. Something sinister seems to be lurking underneath the fake pot plants, astro-turf and upbeat wall murals … How do you know if you’ve got ‘it’? And who gets to decide? They begin to question how far they’re willing to go for success and what they’re prepared to sacrifice before the day of judgement arrives ...
Explain the process of 'The Retreat's' conception through the 2020/2021 lockdowns?
In 2020 Yaw Dadzie, Amarchi Okorom, Michael Logo, Leigh Lule, Betiel Beyin and Ras-Samuel Welda-abgzi began training with Western Edge in their new Level Up Professional Development program. They met twice a week with Western Edge’s co-Artistic Directors Tariro Mavondo and Penny Harpham, learning the basics of performance training and technique. Originally, the group were meant to create an original new performance work to be performed throughout the year, however when the country went into lockdown due to COVID-19, training pivoted online. During these online zoom sessions the ensemble improvised different characters and themes and worked together to create and write scenes (using breakout rooms to zone in on different characters and scene work and then coming back into the main zoom room to perform back for each other).
When lockdown 1 finished we had one rehearsal together in a real life room (!) and then we were forced back to zoom again in Lockdown 2. During this period we storyboarded the entire play, and began working with a design team to conceptualise how the production would look (set, costume, lighting, movement, sound and makeup). We presumed we would be able to perform The Retreat to a live audience towards the end of the year, however as Lockdown 2 continued we realised bringing our community together to watch the show as a live theatre experience was too dangerous with COVID-19.
Instead, we decided to pivot again, and stage the work as a theatre show, but film it with a professional film crew so it could be watched as its own art form – inspired by the Disney Plus version of Hamilton we had all been obsessed with during lockdown! We were fortunate that the Helen McPherson Smith Trust supported us with additional funding to hire the exception The Mountain Goats film crew, and the Substation allowed us to take over their venue for the only weekend they had free in December 2020, and we went to work!
We filmed the whole play – 1 hour 45 mins – in just 2 days. Scene were shot out of order to allow efficiency in time, and some scenes were filmed stand-alone as pure film moments to make them pop or stand out. Since then, it has been 18 months of editing, voice-over recording, sound design and composition, to get the film ready for distribution. Quite the ride that none of us predicted when we first go together in February 2020!
Why should you go and see this film?
The characters are absurd and hilarious yet heartbreaking and powerful; the story is whacky and absurd yet surreal and subversive; the six actors on the screen are already becoming this country’s next superstars so you’ll want to see you saw them here first! And, as I’ve mentioned already, the process was full of set backs and challenges yet we worked through each problem together as a collective to make it work and find new innovative ideas and ways of doing things.
Why do we need to support arts education in the Western suburbs?
The Western suburbs is one of the most multicultural areas in the country and there are so many stories that need to be heard. Our company works every day to provide safer spaces for young people to tell their stories, to share them with their community and the wider Melbourne audience. There is so much talent, so many wonderful ideas, so much wisdom in the West from a variety of cultures and communities – we would be remiss to not want to listen in to what our artists and storytellers have to say.
What are the details of the film premiere?
The Retreat screens at Wyndham Cultural Centre, June 10, 7 – 10pm (pre show drinks and snacks and post show Q & A, dinner and DJ).
Get tickets to the show this Friday at Wyndham Cultural Centre
Header image by Wani Toaishara
Interview questions by Elle Young
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