Digging in the Backyard: "Mirthless" at the Powerhouse

Abstract

In October 2000, as part of the ENERGEX Brisbane Festival, 25 QUT Drama students presented "Mirthless: A Suburban Seduction" at the Brisbane Powerhouse Centre for the Live Arts. Led by London-based (but ex-Brisbane) solo performer and teacher Peta Lily, the students group-devised the show in the two months prior to opening. Even before then, though, they had been discussing initial ideas with Peta via fax in London. Many of their early suggestions were characterised by a darkly melancholic world-view - things like youth violence, corporate greed, human disconnectedness….Peta was reminded of Hamlet’s speech: “I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth.‿ At the same time, she had been thinking about The Graduate, a Broadway revival of which was playing in London at the time. From the conjunction of these two sources came the show’s title, as well as a richly suggestive framework for animating the devising process.