I don’t know about you, but late-night TV and the Perth Fringe Festival just happen to be two of my favourite things. And what could be better than seeing these two illustrious worlds combine under one tent’s roof? From the mind of performer Rose Kingdom-Barron comes ROSE [LIVE], a production promising to bring chaos and spontaneity back to Fringe World.
“It’s the last late night TV show on Earth – but as ratings are falling and production costs are rising, the little show that could bring out all stops to keep the audience entertained and the attention economy in surplus.”
Over the past few years, Rose has presented dazzingly performances such as KARAOKE RODEOKE and served as the host for Mouth of Bok Season 2, as well as the recurring series Bin Night. In 2023 she toured to Launceston and Hobart to host The Queer Woodchop, and to Dark Fringe to devise a reality TV show of artists on a boat. ROSE [LIVE] marks Rose KB’s debut full-length work, and Magazine 6000 spoke with her to get a sneak peek at the show’s preparations before its opening on Feb 2.
How does it feel to be debuting your first full length work? What’s the process been like for you in the lead up to the season?
It has felt really joyous getting back into making. I left my arts admin job at the end of last year so it’s been a tight timeline to ramp up and get everything ready in the month before the show launches on 2 Feb – including an intense but fun creative development period in my living room with the cast and crew. But the show is a coming together of everything I’ve been working on over the past few years (including solidifying collaborations with the other performers), so it feels really exciting to see it all thread together in this full-length piece. It’s a big undertaking though, and now I understand how simultaneously hard and rewarding it is to be driving a process like this!
You started developing ROSE [LIVE] during a research trip to Edinburgh Fringe. What do you find on your trip? Was there a particular moment of inspiration?
I went over knowing that I wanted to make a show about the last late night talk show on Earth, with lots stacked against it, and the stakes feeling really high. So my research involved trying to look at shows with a comedic lens on them like “what if this was the last show in the world”. What would a swansong to human entertainment look/sound/feel like? There was so much I was exposed to, especially different clowning styles, that I was like a kid in a candy shop.
I rewatched the show Maureen after having seen it a few years prior. The character work from Jonny Hawkins – playing a stunning older woman figure that was being forgotten by society, but honoured by others’ memories of her – really rocked me to my core. I loved the work originally, but I wasn’t expecting it to hit so deeply. I think it really connected with what I was trying to tap into about the fear of being replaced, which is a theme in ROSE [LIVE].
Julia Masli’s ha ha ha ha ha ha ha is now my favourite live comedy show to date. It has a lot of intention in it, and the beauty lies in the fact that what’s happening on stage is also happening in real life which was inspiring for what I was trying to bring into my show – grappling with the element of truth. I will always love seeing the way that Stamptown incite late night chaos in their lineup shows too!
MUMMYS PLASTIC presents ROSE [LIVE]
“Semi organised late night chaos and spontaneity” is how you describe your style, how did develop this particular approach for your works?
I did my first FRINGE WORLD show in 2020 with Karaoke Rodeoke – a night where Fringe acts, audience members and show characters would sing, do lip syncs etc. I quickly realised that I was hooked on that “flying by the seat of my pants” feeling, improvising off others and reading the room. After that, I created the series Bin Night – where comedy/drag/storytelling/music acts could perform new work and there was no pressure for it to be refined or polished. I still host that event, often with a co-host, and write the jokes the night before to feel really fresh and relevant to the event. That stuff I feel really drawn to.
So, even though this is the first full-length show that I have written scripted sections for, I never wanted to lose that sense of danger that keeps us (and the audience) on our tippy-toes. Because I think, as an audience member there is a difference between watching something that is fully scripted/rehearsed, and watching something impulsive happen in real time, it feels like there’s some magic at play and a connection is formed with everyone in that room. We are combining both of those forms in this show so that it’s only semi-organised…
You’re bringing your love of TV into this piece, how do you incorporate this element into theatre?
There is a TV in the show which helps! It acts as the central motif/overlord of the show. It symbolises a few things – my obsession with host/entertainers of TV-past such as Rove and Gretel Killeen, as well as millennial nostalgia through the ads that we have created, and this idea of the legacy of people being enshrined in TV World.
There are also some “live” crossovers to performers outside of Perth – these interstate collaborations are important to me as it means people don’t have to be physically here to have them as part of the world of the show.
There are a few of us in the show (as well as other collaborators) that have been working on what we are calling TV-theatre, where we use TV conventions and video elements combined with live performance to give the audience the sensation of being in a live TV studio audience. This includes Australian-idol style karaoke competition Mouth of Bok, and Forever Bistro – an immersive performance art piece/reality TV show about artists trying to stay relevant that was part of Dark Fringe on the Natty Waves boat at DARK MOFO 2023.
MUMMYS PLASTIC presents ROSE [LIVE]
What have you found audiences resonate with or have enjoyed the most about your previous works?
Most of the feedback I get around my performance work is the excitement around the spontaneity element, deep pop culture riffs, and leaning unashamedly hard into a concept. Last year we ran a cruise-ship themed lineup at the Buffalo Club where Angela Clancy from Big Brother started a conga line, which people still remind me of.
My biggest love is platforming someone’s first ever stand-up set, it’s an energy that you just can’t recreate, which I know others have resonated with. There is vulnerability at play when people see you trying to test something, as long as you keep the audience’s experience in mind and understand you are playing with something in service to making them laugh.
I think the folks that know me and the team are now interested to see us do something a bit more elevated than last night’s jokes, and we are pumped to show them. As well as connect with new Fringe audiences that haven’t come across us yet.
Can you tell us about your team of fellow creatives helping to bring this work to the world?
Neil and Elijah from House of BOK (queer party-makers) are the two regular performers on every show. We have been fusing together our nutty ideas over the past few years and I’m so excited for more people to see both of their comedy sides, it’s been so fun and fruitful working with them. Local artist Jack Caddy is doing all the design (set, props, costumes) and operating the extensive and instinctive sound cues – he has a big job but is the most resourceful, conceptually-driven and “can-do” person to work with. We also have original theme music and stings by Solomon Frank (NSW) who I enjoyed working with on Forever Bistro so much that I hit him up for talk-show-style music of our own.
Then every show has a different “cabaret” style act that changes each week. Every Friday is magician Matt Penny who I usually rope into my Bin Night events as we all need a bit of onstage wizardry. Saturday 3 Feb is performance artist Boyname (following their beautiful performance Reconcile that they won Best Performer at The Blue Room Theatre 2023 Awards for), Sat 10 Feb is the alt-cabaret darling/daggy dad Tomás Ford, and on Sat 17 Feb/closing night we have the psych experience of experimental rap/AV trio Myriad Sun, who just need to be seen to be believed. We are working with all of the acts to bring their performance into the narrative of the show, which gives every show a new layer of meaning.
There are also a team of creatives that have been holding us throughout the process, and have been helping with such things as producing (Rebecca McCauley), dramaturgy/stage mom-ing (Grace Connors), publicity (Alex Egloff) and the campaign imagery shoot (Aaron Claringbold on photography and Ashley Brockman on styling) that I am especially grateful for. As well as all the friends that I have chatted to about this – at the pub from Boorloo to Edinburgh and beyond.
How do you anticipate the audience reacting to ROSE [LIVE]? Interaction is optional but what energy would you like your audiences to bring with them?
At the end of the day it’s a late night show in the Pleasure Garden so we want people to enjoy themselves, whether that’s getting involved or sitting back and watching the story unfold. We want it to feel like people are actually in a live TV studio audience, so that’s on us to set them up for that, and hope that it conjures the energy you would find on set. BYO open mind (and heart!)
MUMMYS PLASTIC presents ROSE [LIVE] at the Little Palais in The Pleasure Garden as part of FRINGE WORLD 2024.
DATES: 2-3, 9-10, 16 – 17 Feb 2024, 10:30-11:45pm | Rated 18+