Meet Chase. She’s living her best life. Hailing from the streets of Frankston, Chase is the itch you can’t scratch.
Compelling, repelling, and disarmingly funny, join her as she sifts through the weeds of modern culture with a handy cam and her 33 YouTube subscribers for company. If only Chase understood half of what she helps others discover.
Carly Sheppard has been developing and performing the character of Chase for nearly a decade and has continued to develop its persona through different independent performances over the years.
In 2019, she was the recipient of a Green Room Award for Best Production In Experimental Theatre for Crackers N Dip With Chase N Toey.
Though the character has evolved from a skit to a one-woman show, Chase’s role as a mirror back to Australia remains appropriate – due in large part to Chase’s constant inappropriateness. But therein lies her power to spark conversations about race and class.
Combining Carly’s unique comedic skill and political awareness – and with the assistance of projected visuals, she invites her audience into the juxtaposed digital and physical world as she confronts us to consider how we continue to benefit from colonialism.
Malthouse Theatre’s Artist in Residence Kamarra Bell-Wykes (Chopped Liver, North West of Nowhere, Body Armour, Viral and Scar Trees) directs this confronting and sometimes shocking exploration of race, class and gender in a semi-fictional apocalyptic world.
“Chase is the interruption to the loop, the things you can’t say, the reflection you can never unsee and the tragedy you can’t look away from,” said Kamarra Bell- Wykes.
Meet Chase. And you just might see yourself!
Director & Dramaturgy: Kamarra Bell-Wykes | Writer & Performer: Carly Sheppard | Set Design: smallsound | Composition & Sound Design: smallsound, Richie Brownlee | Lighting Design: Katie Sfetkidis | Besen Placement (Lighting Design): Nofar Szumer-Menashe
Chase
The Tower – Malthouse Theatre, 113 Sturt Street, Southbank
Season: 13 – 17 October 2021
Information and Bookings: www.malthousetheatre.com.au
Image: Carly Sheppard as Chase – photo by Gregory Lorenzutti
Chase is supported by the 2021 Malcolm Robertson Writers Program – a program which commissions two emerging artists per year to write a new Australian work for theatre.