S A I N T S by Elbow Room finds home & inspiration at La Mama
Marcel Dorney
We moved from Meanjin/Brisbane in the late aughts, because we were ‘emerging’ theatre artists. We wanted to emerge into, and participate in, what we felt to be a culture of curiosity, where the questions that art can ask are engaged with daily life, where sport and food and family breathe the same air as music and art and performance.
We’ve always been history nerds, so we knew, even before we arrived, that if we were lucky enough to find this, it would be because La Mama, and other communities like it, had fought for it, over decades.
We did find it, and since 2008, Elbow Room have made seventeen new works of Australian theatre, produced around the continent and overseas. Our next one, though, is the very first time we’ve collaborated with La Mama.
S A I N T S is set in England in 1654, and while it’s a story about witchcraft in a setting of war and revolution, the play is about friendship through adversity, about the ways we share our dreams, and the ways those dreams shape history.
Being developed at La Mama, specifically in the Courthouse, has deeply influenced the shape and tone of the play. The venue was built on unceded Wurundjeri/Woi Wurrung country, to enact and enforce the laws of the British Empire. La Mama was founded to shine a light, one play at a time, on the bigger story of how such a strange thing came to be, and where we’re going from here.
We couldn’t be feel more privileged to be part of that, and we really hope you’ll join us for this new chapter.
Find out more and book: S A I N T S