The Geelong Arts Centre kicks off its 2023 Family Magic program this week with The Rainbow Tree, a bright and colourful family show featuring songs written in collaboration with children from rainbow families.
Performed by two queer self-proclaimed “super aunties”, Aunty Bear (Bec Matthews) and Aunty ZaZa (Sarah Ward) from Fat Fruit, The Rainbow Tree shares personal and imagined stories around the ideas of family, identity and community suitable for children aged 4-8.
Veteran performers, Matthews and Ward said their forays into children’s entertainment in recent years were fun and rewarding, and bringing children’s stories to the stage in the Rainbow Tree had been a “wonderful” process.
“We came up with the title first, knowing we wanted to look at the idea of family, and leave space for the children to talk about the differences in their families,” said Matthews.
“We felt like starting with this imaginary world of the Rainbow Tree was open enough, but had some launching points for the children to generate the material.
“We were meant to have group workshops, but then lockdowns happened. So we essentially did one-on-one interviews with the seven children about what the Rainbow Tree was, and they just jumped on it.
“And that’s the great thing about children; sure, we’re talking about rainbow families, but they’re also talking about fighting unicorns and wildebeests with 142 legs.”
Ward said while the show was created by examining family through a “queer lens”, families were families and the show was for everyone.
“Queerness is not about sexuality, but about the way you see the world,” she said.
“There’s been all these negative connotations that have stopped us having queer representation in children’s work for generations: that queerness is associated primarily with an act of sex; that it’s perverse; that when you talk to children about queerness you’re trying to indoctrinate them.
“Therefore, queer families and children are made to feel invisible, to feel ‘other’ and weird, marginalised and wrong. So the message here is, these are the voices from the children, directly. And rainbow families are like any other family.”
“At the end of the day, it’s a set of music, a bunch of catchy tunes written with children” said Matthews.
“This show is for all families. We made it with rainbow families, but not just for rainbow families.
“We hope that all different sorts of families come so they can be part of the experience and share it with us.”
The Rainbow Tree is showing at the Limelight Studio (Studio 4) with two shows each on January 19 and 20.
