Last night was the first night of rehearsals for our new show for the Darwin Festival - CROCODILE MAN PINEAPPLE WOMAN. Gail Evans, local actor and writer, took a character workshop introducing the dancers to the idea that this show will be strongly character driven. We then learned the disco choreography that Jess Devereux created before she went to Europe. The cast all got on like houses on fire and it feels exciting to finally start after all the preparation.
This show is loosely based on our costume designer's, Ann Gibb, parents. Her father was an Hungarian who came to Australia and took up crocodile hunting in the remote Northern Territory. He married a Thai woman who was renowned for selling her pineapples and other produce on the side of the road and at the market. We saw a photo of the Pineapple Woman posing in a very glamorous manner alongside her husband hauling a great big crocodile out of the swamp. This initial image became the stimulus for what is now shaping up to be a show about how a history of diverse relationships has created the culture of the Northern Territory.
We have decided to set the show in the 1970's. And what better way to express the 70's than to have a big disco party. Ann's costumes are wild, with flouro 70's pantsuits, wild dresses and white boots, and stylish uniforms for our CWA party planners, and the Pineapple Woman's final party dress has to be seen to be believed
