CREDITS
Writer/Director/Sound and Video Designer - Saro Lusty-Cavallari
Producer - Imogen Gardam
Dramaturg/Camera Operator - Christian Byers
Set and Costume Designer - Grace Deacon
Lighting Designer - Sophie Pekbilimili
Stage Manager - Claire Ferguson
Intimacy Coordinator -Lucia Mastrantone
Promotional Photography - Clare Hawley
Production Photography -Zaina Ahmed
STARRING
Jake Fryer-Hornsby - Daniel
Lucinda Howes -Juliette
With a Special Video Performance by - Laura Djanegara
WRITER/DIRECTOR’S NOTE
“I don't know why people expect art to make sense. They accept the fact that life doesn't make sense.”
-David Lynch
Mysteries are really fucking fun.
True crime. Fictional crime. Serial. Agatha Christie novels. Law & Order. Knives Out. Twin Peaks. Broadchurch. You name it.
But I’m starting to wonder if our desire for a beguiling but ultimately resolvable mystery feels a little bit disingenuous. This isn’t just some formal issue about whether an answer to a mystery takes away its beauty; because a whodunnit is a profoundly satisfying thing. What I’m starting to suspect is that the way the mystery narrative has framed our understanding of the world is in need of some interrogation.
To take an extreme example; you may be familiar with the QAnon conspiracy/cult that has dominated political news over the past year. QAnon believes that a cabal of elites (Hollywood celebrities, Democratic politicians and various dog whistles for Jews mainly) are involved in the largest child trafficking ring in the world and now former-President Donald Trump is the only man who can stop them. One of the many sad elements of the QAnon conspiracy is that there is indeed a child trafficking problem in the world but that it usually has a much more mundane face, stemming from poverty, lack of access to education and is often centred on the marginalised communities that QAnon sees as a threat. Because the real problem is actually out in the open there is no narrative for them to politically invest in and thus it cannot compete with the thrilling and conspiratorial drive of the mysterious cabal whether or not they actually exist.
The last few years has also seen a rise in prominent men being outed as sexual predators and I don’t want to challenge whether this is appropriate; it is more than reasonable to demand sexual predators not be given acclaim, platforms or employment. But I increasingly get the sense that these outings also function as a kind of parasocial mystery for people completely divorced from the social spaces these crimes occurred. What I really want to know, and suspect I know the answer to, is how many people have breathlessly dug into the details of these distant mysteries while deliberately ignoring the warning signs in the people around them. How many of us have stopped asking question when people say they’ve “heard things” about a seemingly good bloke’s treatment of women? How many people have written off telling behaviour right before their eyes because to interrogate it would just be too confrontational? How many of us have chosen to not share the damning details of what we know - even if someone is in harm’s way - because to do so would just be read as gossip?
When we begin to experience the darker side of public figures and institutions we tend to keep digging because it makes us feel smarter than the average rube. But when that darkness is present is in our friend, family member or partner we avoid escalating suspicion into conflict because it is no longer an enjoyable mystery but mere unpleasantness.
Inequalities function because they hide in plain sight. Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace because his act of political interference slowly unfolded through investigative reports that would - and did - make a great thriller movie. When Donald Trump repeatedly committed similar offences out in the open - and often through his Twitter account - there was simply no mystery to uncover and no action to take. We knew that sexually abusive men were a constant feature of women’s life and yet it took the conspiratorial unravelling of Harvey Weinstein’s numerous crimes to snap us out of complacency. We have known for decades that people of colour are disproportionately punished by official and vigilante justice systems but it took the repeated ‘discovery’ of visual evidence - from Emmett Till to Rodney King to George Floyd - to re-examine an extant problem as if it was a new one.
You’re probably wondering what the hell any of this has to do with videotapes. To put it simply; I wanted to make a mystery where the principal characters are hellbent on not getting to the bottom of it. Because I honestly believe that we are all very scared of getting to the bottom of anything at the moment. When the simple allure of a good mystery and unpicking the threads that hold together the social equilibrium we rely on go up against each other, what wins? The genre tells us it’s the former but I’m not entirely sure that’s true.
Whatever answer Videotape does or doesn’t give you I want you to ask why those questions are so important. What questions have you not gotten round to asking about the real people in your life outside this theatre?
CAST & CREW
CHRISTIAN BYERS - DRAMATURG/CAMERA OPERATOR
Christian Byers is an Australian filmmaker and actor. Having worked in film from a young age with leading roles in the Australian films Opal Dream (2006), December Boys (2007), Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger and The Tree (2010), Christian has continued to establish himself as one of the most exciting figures in new Australian cinema, going on to such credits as Kettle (2012), Puberty Blues (2013), Ready For This (2015) and Friday On my Mind (2017) in which he played Australian music icon Stevie Wright. His theatre credits include Procne & Tereus (2014), All About Medea (2015) and Hamlet, all of which with Montague Basement. As a filmmaker, amongst several other longform non-fiction projects, Christian is in post production on a documentary hybrid feature film entitled Death of an Undertaker, a dark comedy set during the leadup to Easter 2020 following the final days of Michele Salamone, an Italian-Australian funeral director in Sydney’s Leichhardt, during at the onset of a global pandemic. The film will consist of both observational footage and fictionalized material and will be completed in late 2021.
GRACE DEACON - SET & COSTUME DESIGNER
Grace is an emerging production and costume designer working across theatre, film and television. Grace is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (BFA and MFA Design for Performance). In her time at NIDA, Grace collaborated with some of Australia’s leading theatre directors, including Judy Davis and Kate Champion. Grace has been awarded the William Fletcher Foundation Scholarship and Peter Ivany Scholarship for Excellence in Design. Grace’s recent design credits include: The Great and Powerful Oz(zie) (The Old 505), Australian Open (KXT), This Bitter Earth (Midsumma Festival / Theatre Works), Vogue 60th Anniversary Event, 3 Moons (Music Video), Distant Places (Music Video), God of Carnage and We Are Gods (NIDA), Meat Eaters (NIDA) and Blood On The Cat’s Neck (Montague Basement, KXT).
LAURA DJANEGARA - PERFORMER
Laura grew up in Perth with a passion for performing. Laura completed a BMus majoring in Classical Voice in 2012 at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). At WAAPA, she performed in the operas Die Fledermaus and The Rake’s Progress, and was nominated for the Julie Michael Award for Musical Cabaret. Laura completed a BFA in Acting from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 2016. At NIDA, she performed in The Roaring Girl, Stranger I Am, The Olympians and The Space Between the Fire and the Fuel. She was most recently seen in Time Stands Still (Eclipse Productions), Visiting Hours (KXT bakehouse), Macbeth (Bell Shakespeare) and Animal Farm (New Theatre). This is her second show with Montague Basement, having previously worked with them on Blood on the Cat's Neck. She is excited to work with such a beautiful team
IMOGEN GARDAM - PRODUCER
Imogen is the co-director of Montague Basement, which she co-founded in 2014, producing the group's seventeen productions since formation. She is the Associate Producer, Programming at Griffin Theatre Company. Prior to joining Griffin in 2019, Imogen worked at Bell Shakespeare as Executive Assistant and Artistic Administrator from 2015. Imogen is a graduate of Media and Communications from the University of Sydney, and has previously worked for Hopscotch Features, Entertainment One Australia and The Festivalists. Imogen was the 2018 winner of the Rose Byrne Scholarship for an Emerging Female Leader in the Arts, and was a Board Director for Theatre Network NSW from 2018 - 2020. Imogen has been published in Lumina Journal, Audrey Journal, Honi Soit and on Four Three Film.
JAKE FRYER-HORNSBY - PERFORMER
Jake is an actor and theatre maker originally from regional Western Australia. Jake started acting after relocating to the U.S in his late teens. Jake then studied at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts before making his way to Sydney. Since then, Jake has gone on to work in and around different theatres across the country including Black Swan State Theatre Company, The Australian Shakespeare Company and Bell Shakespeare.
CLAIRE FERGUSON - STAGE MANAGER
Claire graduated Charles Sturt University with a Bachelor of Communications (Theatre/Media) in 2017. Since then, she has worked as Stage Manager in the Sydney independent theatre scene as well as a Touring Stage Manager in the UK. Stage Management Credits include You Got Older (Mad March Hare), Whose Uterus is it Anyway? (Bite Productions), Boy Out of the Country (Company of Rogues), Girl in the Machine by Stef Smith (National Theatre of Parramatta), SLUG (Visible Fictions UK), Animal Farm (The New Theatre) and The Great and Powerful Ozzie (Miranda Middleton).
LUCINDA HOWES - PERFORMER
Lucinda Howes is a Sydney-based actor who completed her three years of training at The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. She has been performing in Sydney‘s independent theatre scene since 2014. Previous Montague Basement productions include Procne & Tereus, Hamlet, Macbeth, All About Medea’, Metamorphoses and Nosferatu: A Fractured Symphony. WAAPA credits include Tecmessa in Ajax in Afghanistan, Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet and Lady Cheveley in An Ideal Husband. In 2020, Lucinda played Nina in Bagryana Popov’s development of The Seagull in conjunction with La Mama Theatre and La Trobe University. In 2021, she performed in Virginia Plane’s production of Twelfth Night at the New Theatre and will perform in Fuente Ovejuna! (Dream Plane Productions) at Flightpath Theatre and Hot Mess (The General Public) at KXT.
SARO LUSTY-CAVALLARI - WRITER/DIRECTOR/VIDEO AND SOUND DESIGNER
Saro is the co-director and co-founder of Montague Basement. For Montague Basement he has written, directed and designed including Procne & Tereus (Sydney Fringe 2014), All About Medea (2015), The Big Bruise (107 Projects 2016), Cleansed (2017). He was the Directorial Secondment for Bell Shakespeare’s Richard 3 (2017). He is currently completing a Masters of Directing for Performance at VCA and made his Melbourne directorial debut with The Public Domain Opera at The Butterfly Club for the 2018 Melbourne Fringe.
SOPHIE PEKBILIMLI - LIGHTING DESIGNER
Sophie Pekbilimli graduated from Newtown High School of the Performing arts in 2010. She spent 4 years as an active member of the technical company designing dance, drama and circus performances. Since then she has designed lighting for many shows including for the Arts Unit, the Pacific Opera, the City Recital Hall, House of Sand, Brave New World, Montague Basement, The House that Dan Built, Joining the Dots Theatre Company, Liveworks and Agatha Gothe-Snape, and worked as lighting designer on Lennon Through A Glass Onion's international tour.
REVIEWS
“A timely and ambitious production that is at once surreal, deeply relatable and unsettling. Despite being one of the first live productions to directly deal with the brutality that was 2020, it’s difficult to see anything else reach such terrifying and authentic heights.”
“For a show about questioning, it’s ironic how undoubtable its success is.”
“Not only is this show a terrific watch, it also is one of the few contemporary plays I have seen which successfully captures a time".”
“A haunting, dark, yet mesmerising play”
“Videotape is a fun return to theatre that successfully engages its audience in exploring why we are drawn towards the mysteries of other people’s lives when we shy away from our own ugly truth”
“The pleasure in Lusty-Cavallari’s creation, lies in the unexpected amalgamation of comedy, drama and horror”
“What begins as a fly-on-the-wall close-up of life in lockdown steadily intensifies into something which is breaking the rules of reality.It’s ingenious stuff.”
“The first production staged at Kings Cross Theatre in 10 months is a gripping suspense thriller infused with anxieties of the pandemic era.”
SPECIAL THANKS
ATYP
Griffin Theatre Company
Company of Rogues
New Theatre
Red Line Productions
Belvoir St. Theatre
Ryan Garreffa
Robbi James
Lachlan Steel
Dom Mercer
Gemma Greer
Andrew Henry
Gen Murratore
Sorie Bangura
Persephone Hitzke-Dean
Rachael Bayliss
Angus Evans
Suzanne Miller
John Harrison
Charlie Vaux
Chris Starnawski
