Old Spice Club Cabaret - The Grey Panthers
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Brown’s Mart Theatre, Darwin City
April 29, 30, 2 pm, May 1,2 8 pm, May 3, 2 pm, 1992
5 performances
It’s Not Unusual to Want Sex at 65
From rap to tap, the Grey Panthers took us on a journey through song and dance through the decades. They challenged the views we all hold about seniors. Whether they are singing songs such as ‘Ladies of the Town ’ and ‘It’s Not Unusual to Want Sex at 65 ’, roller-skating across the stage, spinning on their backs on the floor or presenting a high-energy performance of ‘Shout ’, this debut full-length cabaret shook up those preconceptions.
Director's Notes
Eleven weeks ago, we had our first rehearsal for what has become 'The Old Spice Club Cabaret'. Each Friday over these weeks, David, Sarah, Merrilee and I met with the sixteen women who are the cast in today's performance. With candour and openness, these women shared their attitudes about living as older women and recalled past and present experiences from their lived experiences. Yet underlying our discussions was the question "Who would be interested in hearing about what I used to do and what I think now?"
As the project unfolded, this group of women aged from 57 to 77 years have demonstrated with style their abilities and determination to learn and take part fully in the present. The most outstanding quality that I have witnessed during our time together is the energy that these women have to enjoy living, with a quiet self-assurance.
And what fun we had! - Joanna Barrkman
Creative Personnel
Director: Joanna Barrkman
Choreographer: Sarah Calver
Assistant Director and Choreographer: David McMicken
Musical Director: Merrilee Mills
Production
Designer & Stage Manager: Anda Petrapsch
Lighting Design & Operation: Anne Maree Garcia
Cast
Performers: Inger Andersson, Kath Baldwin, Ruth Blandy, Adie Bruce, Julie Dowson, Audrey Gorring, Glad Morris, Marie Porter, Lila Prochazka, Greta Quong, Marjorie Reynolds, Joy Soullier, Frida Staats, Hanna Stamm, Audrey Svara, Jean Young Smith
The Band: Geoff Alexander - Clarinet & Saxophone, Colyn Blerton - Double Bass, Richard Macks - Piano Accordion, Merrilee Mills - Piano, Clarinet & Keyboard, John Spellman Snr- Keyboard & Cello
Scenario
Act One
Dressing Up As Oldies
Joy – Oldies Are Worth A Lot
Undressing – Throwing Away The Old
Second Wind Tappers: Tea For Two
Joy And Kath: Mandorah
Audrey And Frida: Weird Boyfriend
Julie Monologue As The Waitress
The Bric A Brac Singers: Medley:
Lambeth Walk
Sewing Circle
Silver Lining Dancers: Begin The Beguine/Ballroom
Cleaners: Glad And Marie - Side By Side
Act Two
Tea Ladies: Glad And Marie – Underneath The Arches
Working Women Chant
Super Spectrums: Jitter Bug And Jive - Shout
It’s Not Unusual
Ladies Of The Night: Julie, Adie, and Marje
What Society Thinks I Am, What I Think I Am
Rap Dance
It’s Not Unusual Encore
Thankyou
ABC Radio, Andrea Britton, Jane Carpenter, Channel 8, Darwin City Council, Darwin Theatre Company, Alison Dowell, Kim Gleeson, Dino Hodge, David James, Matthew James, Tessa James, Nora Lewis, Alyson Mills, Kath Mills, NT News, NT TLC & Mayday Office, Tessa Pauling, Pensioners workshop, Jill Pilkington, Gillian Rose Schwab, Sue Ross, Jude Swift, Tracey Village, Kylie Thomas, The Beaufort Hotel, Victoria Whelan, Yoris Wilson, Tain Yard, 8 Top FM, 24 Hour Art
1992
Dance Development Office: David McMicken
[Under Brown’s Mart Community Arts – Executive Officer Ken Conway]
Photos
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Media Response
"… laced with youthful enthusiasm. ... swept aside traditional stereotypes and given new light to a new side of old age … the humour is always quick, and there is no room for prudes on stage or in the audience." Marney White. Northern Territory News
Audience Response
"They enter quietly into the red, lush and gilt décor of entertainment like a child in glee and before our very eyes age into crochet and cross-stitch, bonnets and crafted flowers and the trembling signs of Granny’s doom. It’s a sleight of many spirited hands, because there is little of the granny in these surprising older women. Brushing away cobwebby stereotypes, tapping images of senility well underfoot, The Old Spice Club Cabaret bristles with wry comic energy and charms its audience. As a group of women they are feminist by force, left or leaving behind their menfolk, though they quickly assure us that male company is theirs for the taking, visiting “John” first thing in the morning, chatting with “Arthur”- it is day in and day out, even rubbing shoulders with “Al”-zimers from time to time. In song, dance, and skit, the razzle-dazzle of cabaret is thus spiced by steel-edged tenacity, which conveys the wisdom of experience and their robust appetite for more.
Keep reading Maggi Phillips' response