Wonderbabes come to The Quad
Wonderbabes is a thrilling new work by local artist and NORPA Associate Artist Kate McDowell exposing the traumas of our young sexual and political lives.
Set in Byron Bay on New Year’s Eve Wonderbabes is an epic story of one young woman’s incendiary journey through the night. Underpinned by a live electronic score from DJ/producer James Brown, Kate McDowell’s spellbinding performance is full of rage and poetic beauty.
Kate McDowell grew up in Lismore and holds a NIDA Postgraduate Diploma in Writing for Performance. Wonderbabes developed from her experience of growing up in the Northern Rivers although the themes are universal.
‘I wrote this play when I was 26 as a way of exploring the complexity of what I was feeling as a young woman – I wanted to feel powerful and in control and to understand this incredible rage burning inside me.
But I also wanted safety, admiration, love and respect. It’s a lot for young people to navigate and this is my ode to that time of my life when I was willing to try anything to feel the full force of my power and to beat the sensation that everyone wanted me to just shut up and smile’.
Presented by NORPA and The Quad, Wonderbabes will be performed in a large-scale tent in Lismore’s new outdoor precinct complete with open fires and an outdoor bar to create an immersive music festival experience.
Producer Marisa Snow said, ‘The Northern Rivers is an epicentre of festival culture where a lot of young people have formative experiences. Wonderbabes is an opportunity to see an incredibly powerful theatrical performance presented like a kick-arse music gig. The Quad is the perfect site to present this work and play with the work’s experimental form in an open-air environment.’
Thursday 2 – Saturday 4 August, 2018 7:00 pm // The Quad, 110 Magellan Street Lismore // $25–30
