MEDIA RELEASE
We may have to choose
Written and performed by Emma Hall.
Directed by Prue Clark.
Premiering 5 – 15 March 2015 | Adelaide Fringe Festival
Tuxedo Cat, 54 Hyde St, Adelaide
7.15pm, 55 minutes
---------------------------------------------------------FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
6/01/15
I think therefore I am…. often wrong.
We may have to choose is a monologue of sorts, a one-sided stream of
consciousness, a list of declarations about the universe and our place in it.
"Farting is more interesting to me now than it was 20 years ago. Farting breaks
the ice. Ice caps are good places for Japanese butoh dancing. Dancing fills your
body with happy chemicals. Chemicals are destroying the oceans. Antarctica is
not a good place to visit. The polar bears are angry with you."
Inspired by Tim Etchells’ Sight is the Sense, this is a study of what it is to speak
one’s mind. A personal values framework writ large in all its maddening illogic
and insanity, a fantastical ride through the subconscious mind, and a comedy of
the personal soapbox.
There is a reason we don’t talk about some things.
Written by the co-author of Maybe I Could Crack Your Sternum (Adelaide
Fringe 2014) and directed by Green Room award nominee Prue Clark
(Dropped, Melbourne Fringe 2013), We May Have To Choose premieres in
Adelaide at Tuxedo Cat - Rivers Studio at the 2015 Adelaide Fringe Festival.
We may have to choose is today’s online world onstage. In the internet our
opinions are easily shared, but at the click of a button we block the voices we
disagree with. So is the internet a truly democratic space, where everyone has
a voice? Or is it just an echo chamber?
What is it to speak one’s mind?
“The inspiration for this piece has been bubbling for some time” reveals Emma,
“and draws together my interests in contemporary activism, the online world,
and new theatrical forms.”
“In December 2013, I organised a fundraiser for victims of the Philippine
Typhoon Yolanda and assembled a number of performers to come together to
present work. I contacted Tim Etchells of Forced Entertainment, a preeminent
contemporary theatre company based in England, requesting the rights to
perform one of their pieces at this fundraiser. In response, Tim Etchells
suggested I perform a reading of one of his solo works instead, Sight is the
Sense, which had only ever been performed by one actor and has never been
presented in Australia. This was such a generous act from an artist on the other
side of the world, and an incredible opportunity for an emerging artist like
myself”
“Similar to other Forced Entertainment pieces, Sight is the Sense is in list form,
one man’s attempt to define everything in the world. It is a key reference text
for the development of my piece.”
“Thematically, my artistic practice to date has often focussed on the notion of
'democratised information', in the ways in which truth and story blend together,
and how we use fiction to help us to see fact. I'm fascinated by the ways in
which societal structures and behaviours govern our internal and intimate lives.
This project builds on these ideas – an examination of the interior worlds behind
political language and of our right in a free world to speak our mind..”
---------------------------------------------------------Reviews
For Sternum:
“5/5 stars… Emma Hall and Emma Smith are incredibly talented artists …
(Sternum is) clever, funny, raw, honest, touching and thought-provoking....
See it.” Rip It Up
For Dropped:
“4.5/5 stars… a theatre experience not to be missed… unusual and thought
provoking.” Artshub.
---------------------------------------------------------Further reading
 Emma Hall :: www.emmamaryhall.com
 Amelia Lever-Davidson :: www.amelialeverdavidson.com/
 S.S. Sebastian :: www.facebook.com/sebastian.army
---------------------------------------------------------What
We May Have To Choose
When
5-15 March 2015, 7.15pm
Where
Tuxedo Cat - Rivers Studio, 54 Hyde St, Adelaide
Online at adelaidefringe.com.au
Media contact
Becci Love :: [email protected] or
0411 178 144