Programmed to coincide with the Tour Down Under, Symphonie de la Bicyclette is a show whose origins can be traced back to the cycling event.
“A few years ago now, I was asked to come up with a character to portray in the Santos tent for the Tour Down Under village,” says Adelaide-based Parham.
“I came up with this satirical French-Belgian character called Jacque Corson, a buck-toothed, quite goofy character.
“I noticed that there were a lot of families around and I remember thinking that it feels like there’s a lot of people here who would come to a fully-fledged show.”
Parham says his vision for the show started to change when he began to hear about the story of Gino Bartali, a successful professional cyclist who used his fame to secretly transport documents for the Italian resistance to aid persecuted Jews in northern Italy during World War II. Researching Bartali and his endeavours, one particular quote stuck with Parham.
“There was this saying that he had, which was that certain medals hang on the soul, not on the jacket. That statement kind of blew my mind and I became obsessed with Gino and discovering his story.”
Symphonie de la Bicyclette opens at Adelaide Festival Centre’s Space Theatre on January 17. Photo: Supplied
Parham says he began reflecting on himself, on what modesty means, and what true virtue and heroism looks like.
“There was something about that statement which made me think a bit about myself.
“I’m pretty notorious at getting petulant at award ceremonies when I don’t win and often noticed my own envy and jealousy when I saw other people doing well; it’s a lot of tongue-in-cheek.
“From that place, I started to kind of explore the duality of me writing a character based on myself – but a very heightened version of myself. I ended up with this cyclist [named Hew] who wants medals, he wants awards, and he wants fame and recognition, versus Bartali, who had that but was very quietly noble, like he uses his fame in another way.”
The show sees Parham tell the stories of the two men in parallel, with Symphonie de la Bicyclette inviting the audience to reflect on parts of themselves as well as Parham himself.
“I was seeing a lot of narcissism in the world at the time,” he says. “Trump was around and then there was a lot of media coverage around Lance Armstrong and his relentless need to win. This is all in contrast to a guy like Bartali, who was very quietly heroic… You don’t need to get on top of the podium to be seen. You can be seen in small ways, through connection and interactions with people.”
Hew Parham in Symphonie de la Bicyclette. Photo: Supplied
Symphonie de la Bicyclette is being presented by Brink Productions and directed by Brink artistic director Chris Drummond, who describes Parham as brilliant storyteller who weaves together the stories of the two cyclists with “amazing invention and flare”. The result, he says, is “equal parts hilarity and heart – a truly wonderful ride”.
Parham says cycling was a convenient link for the two characters he portrays in the show, but also holds a lot of importance to him, particularly after a formative crash of his own.
“I had a really bad crash when I was in my mid-20s. I wasn’t in a very good mental state at that time and the crash almost made me worse. However, it turned me around in a way, and I worked out that I was going in the wrong direction in life.
“I crashed near where my grandma’s grave was and there was something kind of weird about that – I felt like she was somehow telling me I was going in the wrong direction, [and] ‘you need to go this way’.”
The difficulties in creating a one-man show go beyond writing and remembering the 37 pages of dialogue. He also has to switch between characters on stage.
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“It’s pretty tricky flipping between these characters very quickly and I have to have a lot of conviction in who I am playing… There aren’t changes in costume, so a change in physicality [and] a change in voice is the only way to pull it off.”
Parham says he hopes audiences who see the show can both have a laugh and take something away from it.
“In the show, the Hew character starts to see his worth through some of those little acts of kindness and I want them [the audience] to see how they can kind of have their own sense of worth in their actions rather than feeling that they’ve got to dominate or win.
“There’s a certain pride or beauty in human connection.”
Brink is presenting Symphonie de la Bicyclette at the Space Theatre from January 17 to 21.
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