BOBBY | July, 2018

Have you ever been down and needed

Help?

Man we have

Have you ever sat down at the end of the day with a bottle of McLaren Vale Shiraz, Cat Stevens on the record player, and cried out in a small, wavering voice; Help?
Man we’ve all been there.

Or have you ever run a small to medium arts organisation, running on a shoestring and hoping to make remarkable work in a regional environment with a mandate to establish yourself as a serious player on the national arts scene, a fresh local council triennial application looming, and you just wish you had a little extra Help? Man that’s something we can really relate to.

If you’re after that kind of Help, mann we know just what you need…

A Bobby

...a phallic symbol, a trophy, a deserved accolade, a rigged outcome…
Whatever you want to call it, we've got one and we don’t mean to gloat but we won it. In a ceremony. Farmer Josh was onstage in Sydney with Louise Bleachzina legitimately accepting it. Noone stopped them. They didn't get strip-searched on the way out and had Bobby taken off them in front of shocked Sydney art makers. We've got it. It’s in our office on the Goldie. Or because we share this beautiful object with our besties (Bleach* Festival) it’s moving between our office and theirs until we raise the funds to get a replica so we can both display the only Helpmann ever won by a Gold Coast company and the only winner for Queensland this year. Like I said we don’t mean to gloat but we’re doing it right now...

We're so proud of it we even sleep with it. Not in any dirty way that might tarnish the wood stain but in a wholesome, big spoon little spoon - are you comfy Bobby? - kind of way. I’m pretty sure Hugo Weaving has his Bobby close up and personal too.

Another thing we’re proud of at the moment is our Farmstays. These are our new residency programs or our “now we’ve got a Helpmann we no longer need to prove anything so let’s give some other people a chance” programs.

First up was Lowana and Mindy Davies. Sisters working together. In our role as hosts and dramaturgical supporters we offered Sister Act 2 as a provocation but they turned the idea down. Now we're wondering if they were only using us for our space.

Here's what they said:
"we formed new collaborations, strengthened old ones, danced with Charli the stray cat, formed Umwelt Collective, devised a new performance titled Re:membering and presented a work in progress in the Farm House. It was exciting to be able to create a piece that we can see ourselves taking on tour in the future. Thank you to everyone who came along to support us! One audience member wrote that the experience of our work in progress showing was ‘Touching. Emotive, visceral, an expressive outpour of real substance. Supportive, close, touching and inclusive. Warm, slightly tortured, interesting, pregnant with emotion’. We cannot wait to continue impregnating people with emotion, developing this piece further and learning from the Farm!" - Lowana and Mindy Davies

We are so proud you impregnated people in our studio that we'll send the incident report with a bunch of roses.

Next up was Brianna Kell and Andrew Searle. They didn't give us a quote yet so we've made one up.

"The Farm were amazing. The artists there are so knowledgeable and experienced and their work is the best dance ever created in this or any other country. I mean they even won a Helpmann recently..."

They go on a bit about us, it's kinda embarassing...

Their piece was an incredible fusion of their two bodies, working in symbiosis. A bit like a musical duo with two great performers...like Lauren Hill and Whoopi Goldberg in that movie where a nun tries to shape a bunch of rowdy kids into a choir...

Next up we're about to get Cockfight back on the road. We're touring to Toowoomba,Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Frankston, Perth, Mandurah, Margaret Riverand Canberra...phew! That's a lot of cock. Go here for more details.

And since the last newsletter we’ve worked in multiple locations at the same time!

We solved the Theory of Everything through dance at La Boite in Brisbane and Farmer Grayson had a season of Make Do at Tanzeit in Berlin. Both at the same time! That's right, The Farm has finally franchised.

Next year we’re aiming for three cities across the globe and later on three performances happening on the same stage at the same time with ten people playing the role of MacBeth while fifty other people dance the role of Giselle to a soundtrack by an orchestra, an avant grade composer, two rock bands and a choir of zombie children. We will dance (tap, hip hop and interpretive), sing (Marvin Gaye covers with Stomp style percussion), and act (we figure there’s only one way to act - fast - so we will try and get that bit over with). Costumes will be optional and we won’t invite audience because we don’t want the pressure.

It will look a little bit like this…

We still don’t know if we can we afford rain effects but we feel like Hugo will be a no brainer because we now share the same little wooden penis.