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Big Love sets out to get under the skin

Monday, 11 March 2024

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  • Big Love will be performed by WAAPA’s 3rd Year Performance Making students

    Big Love will be performed by WAAPA’s 3rd Year Performance Making students

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"Set in the 1980s at the height of glam-rock, John Hughes films, Cyndi Lauper, fingerless gloves and permed mullets, WAAPA’s production of Big Love sets out to get under the skin,” says visiting director Candy Bowers.

Big Love, written by the American playwright Charles Mee in 2000, is based on one of the oldest existing Greek tragedies, The Suppliants by Aeschylus.

WAAPA’s production weaves live music into this unflinching look at justice, revenge, and the enduring power of love.

Performed by WAAPA’s 3rd Year Performance Making students, Big Love runs from Thursday, 21 March to Wednesday, 27 March at 7.30pm in the Enright Studio, with a matinee on Saturday, 23 March at 2.00pm.

“Fifty about-to-be brides flee from their wedding day before the fifty wanna-be grooms arrive,” explains Bowers.

“A historical transaction between their fathers, the sisters are shook that they can still be sold like objects to men – their cousins – whom they hardly know, let alone love. They seek asylum across the ocean, stumbling upon a glorious Italian villa, which is where our play begins.”

Once the brides are discovered by the determined grooms, the villa erupts in a clash of wills, songs, dance and one final, unforgettable showdown.

Melbourne-based Bowers is an award-winning playwright, poet, actor and producer who has created an extraordinary cross-disciplinary body of work that has toured extensively in Australia and abroad.

Under Bowers’ direction, this production of Big Love will be loud and raw, celebrating the diverse talents of WAAPA’s graduating cohort of performance makers.

“This is a deep-fried allegorical tale stitched with music, choreography and extreme physicality reflecting a world devoid of love, logic, protection, hope or equality ... a tale a little too close to the bone,” she says.

“Part farce, part horror and wholly visceral, Big Love will confront and tickle in equal measure.”

Content warning: Coarse language, references to and depictions of death, violence, sexual abuse and suicide, sexual references, adult themes. Recommended for ages 16+

For all venue and performance details, please visit the Big Love performance web page.

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