Shake & stir theatre co has really lived up to its name since forming in Brisbane in 2006. The enterprising company has been busy since then carving out an ever-growing niche for unique stage works with the company’s next world premiere just weeks away.
Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach will burst into life at QPAC’s Playhouse on March 30, then visit Canberra, Sydney and the Gold Coast in June, July and September.
Director Ross Balbuziente promises that this new global adventure – following James and seven friendly superbugs as they criss-cross the world inside the oversized fruit – will serve a visual feast fans will relish.
“The goal is always to create a live action, large-scale cartoon world for these stories to live in,” he says.
Balbuziente regards this new production as a “sequel to the creative landscape” seen in Fantastic Mr Fox, partnering again with video designer Craig Wilkinson and illustrator Jon Weber on live animation that the cast will interact with.
Balbuziente and fellow founding co-artistic directors Nelle Lee and Nick Skubij have so successfully turned their shared childhood love of Dahl’s wildly imaginative stories into their own marvellous creations over the past 12 years that they now hold the exclusive Australian theatrical rights to adapt the popular author’s tales as plays. This is shake & stir’s fifth collaboration with the same creative team.
“Thankfully, we’ve had a long-standing fruitful relationship with the Roald Dahl Story Company and there is a lot of trust and respect for (our) work,” he says. “They see that we put a lot of heart in, and blood sweat and tears, despite our adaptations being productions for younger audiences. We treat them just as importantly as our mainstage work that is directed more at adults.”
Even making that distinction, there is frequently a crossover between the two. Fourteen, shake & stir’s mainstage adaptation of Shannon Molloy’s bittersweet memoir chronicling growing up gay in regional Queensland naturally resonated with teens as well as adults who remember those years all too well. Originally co-produced with Brisbane Festival and QPAC, its four-week 2022 premiere season sold out and was acclaimed as equal parts entertaining and important.
“The hype was real for that production,” Balbuziente reflects. “It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about the impact that it made. There were some beautiful moments where families were watching that together and drawing such strong parallels to things they were going through at that very time.
“We received overwhelming feedback from families that said ‘this production has helped us talk about this. It started conversations in households and we thank you’.”
Soon the nation will see Fourteen in an extensive eight-month 30-venue tour that includes a Brisbane encore, with key cast members Conor Leach (Shannon), Karen Crone (his mum) and Amy Ingram (multiple roles) returning. (The remainder of the cast will be announced next week.)
Shake & stir is also co-presenting with John Frost for Crossroads Live, a predominantly regional Australian tour of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap directed by Robyn Nevin. It’s been a big hit but so far has only played in major metropolitan venues.
“We think regional audiences deserve to see the same large-scale productions that are staged at QPAC,” Balbuziente says. “That’s why we’ve been touring that circuit for the past 12 years. It’s a really great partnership and we’ve got a few exciting things in the pipeline with Crossroads.”
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It’s not only audiences who benefit from shake & stir’s extensive touring commitment, but also actors. Balbuziente says that whether the timeline is immediate or takes several years, he’s proud that a lot of the work has a future life.
“There’s all our school touring as well,” he says. “It’s really lovely to be able to offer actors long-term employment across the year.”
With Balbuziente again at the helm, rehearsals for Fourteen will start as soon as James and the Giant Peach opens.
As if he and the company aren’t already busy enough, Balbuziente teases that there are other productions yet to come to QPAC.
“It adds to a very very very full plate in 2024.”
James and the Giant Peach plays the Playhouse, QPAC, March 30 to April 7, qpac.com.au
shakeandstir.com.au
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