In Conversation with Roman Berry and some of the Ensemble | NA-IBA: The Other, A Look at Medea
In today's Backstage at Fringe, we speak to Roman Berry and some of the Ensemble from NA-IBA: The Other, A Look at Medea, which comes to Explosives Factory next week as part of our Melbourne Fringe Festival Hub!
Na-iba — The Other is a performance development work by Divergent Theatre Collective, drawn from Euripides' Medea and made entirely in the present tense. A myth about displacement, retold by those who have lived it from the inside.
Q: Welcome to Theatre Works! How are preparations going so far?
Aida:
We're still discovering and exploring within ourselves and each other. Working with confinement and Tinikling has been an interesting experiment. So many stories are coming out through the process. Excited to see what comes next.
Roman:
Good pressure. And great discoveries.
This is the first time the Tinikling Devising Methodology is being tested as the actual foundation for a devised piece, not just a workshop tool. Eight of us in the room. Three performances at Theatre Works Explosives Factory, with a short forum after. Every rehearsal tests whether the method holds under real production weight. We're also negotiating what goes on stage and what stays in the library for later. Different theatre forms are getting tested too. Exciting to be in it and thank you again Chris and Theatre Works for this opportunity.
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Q: You're sitting in a bar on a warm October night. Eyes drifting across the room, softly swirling your drink in your hands, and bam. There they are. Your exact target audience member. Can you describe them?
Roman:
Two people, actually…
Denli:
There’s a person alone, just sitting there. They come from a less multicultural lens, but they’re open and curious. Intrigued.
Roman:
…and the other is also at the bar, alone, they feel like an outsider, maybe because of where they’re from, how they speak, who they love. And I think what they both share is neither wants Greek tragedy done the same old way. When the lights come up, neither claps straight away. They sit with it first."
Q: What will audiences find in your show that they can't find anywhere else at Fringe?
Mayen:
For me, what makes our Medea special is all of us bringing a little bit of where we come from into the same story. We're Filipino, Malay, Indian, Vietnamese-Iranian and Spanish, and somehow all those different backgrounds come together through the movement and rhythm of the bamboo sound. It feels like our own Medea, rather than just another retelling of the classic.
Roman:
Like Mayen said, Medea told through Filipino and Cebuano rhythm and bamboo dance movement. The method comes from a real cultural practice, something I grew up with, not something pulled off a shelf. Three of the seven performers are Filipino artists. Othering isn't a theme we picked. It's something some of us have lived.
Q: What will surprise audiences about this work?
Roman:
How physical it is, for one. This isn't a straight, dialogue-driven Medea. The Tinikling rhythm sits under everything, so the body carries as much of the story as the words do. The other surprise is language. Filipino, Cebuano, Bahasa Malaysia and others sit in the work as they are, untranslated for comfort. Even the title carries it: Na-iba, The Other.
Q: What has been the most memorable moment in your process so far?
Mariabelen:
The most memorable moment, among several, was after a rehearsal when we all saw the river and wrote about it.
Roman:
How openly everyone, the collaborators, accepted the Tinikling process. And the team all behind it. Building a devised show from a classic using a Filipino folk dance methodology could have gone either way. It didn't. This team is awesome. We found we could be economical with provocations. The discoveries kept opening more than we expected. Stories just kept coming. We valued ideas over ticking off sessions. Two minute writing bursts. Bamboo clicking. Physicality. Somehow you come out energised instead of drained. We definitely have a lot to share about the Tinikling discoveries and how it can be applied to storytelling, at the forum too.
NA-IBA: The Other, A Look at Medea plays at Explosives Factory 15 - 17 October as a part of Melbourne Fringe.
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