this person, one day you might be this person. I think the audience can always relate to a character in the show, no matter where they are in their life. Summer: Of the six [main] characters and then the four or five other[s], I’ve definitely had periods of probably everyone. I’ve definitely had a Georgie period, heavily. I’ve had periods where I’ve felt on top of the world – I’ve felt like Pip… owning my shit. I’ve had moments where I’m the nun, and I’m a little bit confused about what’s going on. And then I’ve also had moments where I’m probably a bit of a dick. I’m a bit Nathan-y. But I think I would like to relate to [Georgie] the most because even though she goes through a period of being naive to a person’s ulterior motives, she comes around and she does realise… that’s probably the most secular track in that sense. Rossa: There’s a great line in the play which isn’t actually a character, it’s a real-life verbatim text, which is, “what’s the furthest you’ve gone for a crush?” And they say, “literally whatever the other person wanted just to get them interested in me,” which is Chloe’s great line. I feel like we’ve all done that at some point. Tom: CONFESSIONAL touches on this concept of humanity being linked through a shared, cathartic experience, [with] people releasing experiences, shame, secrets. Where do these confessions come from and how do you think that contributes to a sense of confessions being intrinsical [sic] to the human experience? Alice: There were two things that really inspired us. There’s a thing called the Unsent Project, which is an archive online where you can look at notes people have written to other people and you can search it by name… you can see like 100 notes that are all addressed to you. I remember Primala brought something to the table called Post Secret, which is people writing secrets on ordinary household items like scrap paper/postcards, and it gets put online. We were like, how do we create something that allows people to be completely honest and vulnerable? And how do we make that in a theatre context? We made an online form - we were like, “please confess, it’s all going to be anonymous. We’re writing a show, what’s something that you’ve done?” I think everyone holds a lot of shame about things they’ve done. I also at the same time hear people saying no one’s ever had an original thought. That used to really terrify me as a theatre maker because I was like, “oh my god, I’ve got nothing to say that is unique and wholly individual.” But now I feel really liberated by that because I’m like, “oh my god, nothing is unique and individual.” Therefore, I can write whatever I want and someone will resonate with it. How cool is that? [The confessions] have come from everywhere. We’ve got some [from] when we were prepping for Comedy Festival, where we went, “hey, we want Melbourne confessions specifically.” As the writer of the show, I don’t feel like I can ever take credit because the text is not mine. It belongs to other people… at least 50 people… because the content is theirs and the confessions are theirs. It’s the actors because they selected the confessions. It feels like a show that’s been handed through so many people. Summer: There’s so much stuff I have done in my life where I look back and go, “oh my god, no one can ever know that. That goes to the grave with me.” When I watched the very first iteration of this show, I realized everyone is in the same boat. We all have something that we feel a bit dirty about. I think it’s really brave when we come out at the beginning and ask the audience members, “can you please tell us a confession?” Because I don’t know if I would be brave enough to give my darkest confession, but I do love hearing them. There have definitely been ones that have shocked me… but I’ve never gone about it with an air of judgment, because we are so grateful that someone is letting us use that material as a part of the show. Josh: Now that this is coming to an end, what’s the next project? Alice: It’s sad, right? We don’t know when, for the five of us, we’ll be working on something altogether next. And that’s part of the sad and wonderful things about theatre. This feels like a question for Penny, really, in terms of, like, Gumboot. Penny’s got fruitful plans for Gumboot. Do you have anything you want to plug Rossa? Rossa: Gumboot Theatre… definitely follow them on socials. Hashtag watch this space, hashtag more good things coming. They’ve already produced two great works - there will be many more so they’re a company to watch out for. SAY IT LOUD! 12
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