A theatrical debut of sonically-challenging proportions. What if the world’s worst Bob Dylan impersonator thought he was Bob Dylan? Bad Dylan comes to The Butterfly Club this December and asks, how bad can Bad Dylan be?
Bad Dylan is one man’s retelling of the life of one of music’s most important figures. But is it really Him? Worn down by the weight of too many years on the road, the truth isn’t something easily spoken.
What aren’t lies must surely be truths, but after a while even truths have a habit of becoming myths, and Bad Dylan has many truths to tell. An hour of song, recollections, and confession.
Div Collins is an Arts Graduate from Massey University, performing his first solo work since moving to Melbourne in 2013. A native of New Zealand, where he first conceived the show many years ago, he’s excited to bring his creation to the wonderful City of Melbourne.
“I wasn’t ready for Bob Dylan when I first started listening to music in my late teens,” said Collins. “Back then, it was all grunge and anything heavy that sounded, ‘Alternative.’ That all changed in my 20s when a friend lent me a copy of Blonde on Blonde.”
“His poetry, his artistry, his musicianship – I could hear it all for the first time. But I could also hear his curiosity, his restlessness, and a sense of darkness. As our present day confronts its own darkness, it’s been fascinating to explore one artist’s way through into the light.”
Don’t Look Back – D.A. Pennebaker’s documentary on Bob Dylan’s tour of England in 1965, gives a glimpse into many aspects of Dylan, including his song writing. While so many fans then received his music as the near-sacred words of a prophet, Dylan takes a contrarian position, telling a journalist that “I don’t write for any reason. There’s no great message.”
Bad Dylan digs down in the stories, fables, and happenstances that made him what he is when he wrote songs that will endure long after we are dust and memories.
Bad Dylan
The Butterfly Club, 5 Carson Place, Melbourne
Season: 12 – 15 December 2018
Information and Bookings: www.thebutterflyclub.com
Image: Div Collins stars in Bad Dylan (supplied)