Scene and HERD

Scene and HERD

Lab member Peta Murray made her Theatre Works debut on Sunday, 25 April 2021, as both a back-up singer and creative collaborator on HERD.

In this work-in-progress, two writers, one composer/dramaturg, one director/dramaturg and three performers with a musical bent engage with ideas of queer community, herd immunity, pandemics and queerness. Springing from Lachlan Philpott’s 20-year-old play Bison, this new work expands outwards, both formally and in terms of its vision of the queer herd, to imagine a queer cantata, or Q(u)antata.

Drawing upon her past as a playwright and a more recent interest in neologisms honed through her blogsite mmmmyCorona, Peta’s contribution has been both scripted, and lyrical. Intergenerational collaboration with composer Meta Cohen has already delivered a song called Bruize, and a second song, Ghazanella is in progress. The work has had funding in this early stage of  its life from Creative Victoria and Theatre Works as well as support from Creative Agency research lab. 

Presented by wreckedAllprods HERD had a process-based showing and Q & A as part of the MidSumma festival. The creative team was Alyson Campbell, Meta Cohen, Peta Murray Lachlan Philpott with performers Maude Davey, Ibrahim Halaçoğlu and Willow Sizer.

Photo and words wrangled by Peta Murray

non/fictionLab is supported by Writing & Publishing at RMIT

A herd of cattle HERD logo by Jane Murphy
Performer Maude Davey and Composer Meta Cohen Performer Maude Davey and Composer Meta Cohen
25 April 2021

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