THE PAST IS A WILD PARTY

Writer Noëlle Janaczewska

Director & Designer Kate Gaul

Performer Jules Billington

Lighting Designer Benjamin Brockman

Composer & Sound Designer Madeleine Picard

Stage Manager Alexis Worthing

Production Photography Alex Vaughan

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The Writer takes a journey through archives, sexual politics and their own queer history. To create their chosen family. It’s about falling a little bit in love with nineteenth-century poet Amy Levy. Passionate friendships and whether a girl can be your boyfriend. Trash and high art. Immersing yourself in lesbian pulp from the 1950s. Censorship. Gaps and silences. Outing yourself—as someone with mental health issues. The Past is a Wild Party is about reading The Well of Loneliness in your teens and looking for—let’s call it ‘technical information’ about girl-on-girl sex.​

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From Noëlle: "The monologue cum performance essay is a hybrid I’ve developed which draws not only on the essay and the theatrical monologue, but also on field reports, memoir, spoken word, cultural criticism, and the traditions of the literary salon and the public talk. The Past is a Wild Party completes a trilogy I began with Good With Maps (multiple seasons 2016 – 2021) and The End of Winter (Sydney 2022, touring 2023 – 2024)."

 

The Past is a Wild Party opened on Wednesday 10 July, 2024 at the Loading Dock Theatre at Qtopia, 301 Forbes Street, Darlinghurst. It played  until Saturday 27 July, 2024.