Peacemongers by The People

Presented by Darebin Arts Speakeasy

The People make theatre that is formally experimental, politically current, and personal. An amorphous consortium headed by Morgan Rose and Katrina Cornwell, The People work with whoever is interested, and whoever has something to say. Peacemongers has been created through years long collaboration with artists Sonya Suares, Samuel Gaskin, Kate Hood, İbrahim Halaçoğlu, and Zachary Pidd.

Tonight they invite you to dinner and a show. The show is about bigotry and polarisation. They’ve made it a musical to lighten the mood. Dinner will be hearty and simple, served by our good friends at Moon Rabbit.

Peacemongers is a real-life attempt at utopia. It's documentary theatre at its most absurd, and an act of rebellious and delusional hope. Witness a group of ordinary people who set out to write a play about an ideal society, one in which bigotry doesn’t exist. What started as an exercise in rehearsal, spirals into a years-long endeavour.

Let us welcome you to dinner and the final stage of this quixotic undertaking, in which this unconventional company of artists attempts to answer the question: What do we do with people we disagree with?

*Please include all allergies/dietary requirements in your booking. Vegan and GF options will be served nightly. For any other requirements, please book at least a week in advance to ensure we have time to consult with catering.

For wheelchair and accessible bookings please contact: ticketing@darebin.vic.gov.au.

Running time

Approximately 90mins, no interval

Content Warnings

This production uses mild language and adult themes.

Creative Team

Co-created by: Samuel Gaskin, Kate Hood, İbrahim Halaçoğlu, Sonya Suares, Zachary Pidd, Katrina Cornwell and Morgan Rose
Director: Katrina Cornwell
Writer: Morgan Rose
Performers: Samuel Gaskin, Kate Hood, İbrahim Halaçoğlu, Sonya Suares, Mia Boonan and Zachary Pidd
Producer: Flick
Musical Director: Zachary Pidd
Set and Costume Design: Nathan Burmeister
Sound and AV Design: Justin Gardam
Lighting Design: Rachel Lee
Assistant Director: Meg Taranto
Composition: Zachary Pidd with İbrahim Halaçoğlu, Sonya Suares and Samuel Gaskin
Production Stage Manager: Harry Dowling
Assistant Stage Manager: Ella Curtis-Webster

Artist Bio

Self-professed pop-culture fanatics, The People are fascinated by the collision of theatricality, mass-media and everyday life. Their work is shaped inextricably by the people involved and as such is always changing: it is formally experimental, personal, politically current, relatable and deeply moving.

The People was founded by visual director Katrina Cornwell and American born playwright Morgan Rose, who have a 13-year history of collaborative devising. Driven by a shared queer lens, The People deconstruct systems of power to expose the inner worlds of individuals, beckoning the audience to look within. The People make work with whoever is interested, whoever has something to say. In recent years they have presented a live episode of reality television on stage, The Bachelor S17E05, the award-nominated locked-down-extravaganza, A Disorganised Zoom Reading of the Script from Contagion, and a deconstruction of the romantic comedy, Grand Gesture.

thepeoplemaketheatre.com | FB: /thepeoplemaketheatre | IG: @thepeoplemaketheatre

Image by: Pia Johnson

Peacemongers was developed with support from the Victorian Independent Producers Initiative, the City of Melbourne, Fringe Common Rooms and the Victorian College of the Arts.

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