Many shows explore themes of death and grief, but few tackle the death industry as directly and with as much honesty, humanity and humour as the Director.
The show’s creators and performers Lara Thoms and Scott Turnbull met in Tasmania in 2016 when Thoms was working as an artist for Dark Mofo and was tasked with creating a costume ball in Turnbull’s funeral home.
“When I met Scott I was so fascinated by his line of work, particularly what happens behind the scenes in the morgue and how funerals are organised,” Thoms said.
“And he was such a charismatic character, I felt like he could naturally be a performer. And so I invited him to create this work with me.”
The Director, which Thoms said “looks and feels like a play, but (is) more like a documentary”, features her and Turnbull playing themselves.
The pair share their personal stories and experiences of grief, set tasks for the other to perform and give feedback on each other’s actions.
Thoms and Turnbull also invite audience members to ask questions, which Thoms said was an integral part of the experience.
“I think people, once given permission to talk about death and grief, really are very pleased to be able to speak about it,” she said.
“It’s often a taboo subject that people feel uncomfortable raising but once it’s raised they have a lot to say about it, and our audiences have always been extremely warm and curious; after the show Scott and I get a lot of questions.”
Turnbull agreed, saying dealing with death was like anything else; one gets better at it with repetition.
“For some of us, grief’s a little bit like doing tax; you know you have to do it, but you procrastinate, put it off, and then sort of rush through it,” he said.
“Then you speak to someone who knows about it and you know you could have done it differently.
“The more education you can have around it, the better you are at dealing with it.”
Since 2018 Thoms and Turnbull have toured the Director in India and the UK and performed around Australia.
The Geelong shows will be the last chance for Victorian audiences to see the work before the duo heads to the US to play in Texas and New York.
“That’s a whole other level of things, but I’ve got myself an Akubra ready to swap for a Stetson when I get over there,” Turnbull said.
The Director is at Platform Arts Performance Space from Wednesday, March 22 to Saturday, March 25.
