Kym Vercoe from version 1.0
September 10th 2010 01:20
Kym Vercoe
Kym Vercoe graduated from UWS/Theatre Nepean in 1996. She became a core member of Company Theatre Physical in 1998 and with them devised and performed Waltz No. 6, Tailing Out, Landed and Overexposed. For Harlos Productions she performed in King Lear in 2001 and 2002.
Kym has worked extensively with ERTH, both within Australia and internationally. For the Darlinghurst Theatre Company Kym has performed in Necessary Targets and Sanctus.
Most recently she was a performer/devisor on Theatre Kantanka's Missing the Bus to David Jones. For version 1.0 Kym has toured nationally with The Wages of Spin, and worked as a deviser/performer on This kind of ruckus and Deeply offensive and utterly untrue.
I worked with Kym Vercoe on a few productions in the nineteen nineties, we did some development work on a play Ceasefire by the Irish Bag Lady and dramatist Shirley Lewis, and were cast opposite each other in the short film Edge of town as man and wife. We also strutted our stuff together as part of The Self Saucing Mouthful along with Peter McGill, who was cast as a young gentleman opposite Kym in the quirky short Tango in the river.
Vercoe's role in Tango required her to run in full flight, up the side of a tall grassy knoll. She was astonishing to watch charging through the long grass, escaping the horror of this particular marriage her character was being entangled in. Now Kym is working with version 1.0 on a production of seven kilometres north-east, a new performance with video artist Sean Bacon, exploring the discomforting entanglements of place, tourism and atrocity.
The work was triggered by a visit to the famous Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic Bridge, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in 2008. Completed in 1571, this bridge forms an historical link between east and west, made famous in Nobel-prize winning author Ivo Andric's novel The Bridge over the Drina.
The nearby Vilina Vlas Spa Resort in Visegrad, was recommended in a tourist guidebook, and so Vercoe checked in. The visit was a great success, filled with tourist adventures and slivovitz-fueled conversations with locals.
Upon returning home, Vercoe discovered to her horror that certain facts about Visegrad had been omitted from the tourist guidebook. The travelogue shifts, turning to a darker reflection upon how places bear traces of the atrocities that occur within and around them, the unspeakable and unbearable acts that current residents are only too happy to see erased or obscured. Drawing upon journal notes, the writings of Ivo Andric, tourist guidebooks, correspondence with guidebook editors, and transcripts from the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia, seven kilometres north-east is an evocative and deeply personal political performance.
David Jobling: Version 1.0 is well known for being politically astute and entertaining to boot! How have you found yourself working with the company?
Kym Vercoe: I first worked for version 1.0 in 2006 when I was asked to replace a performer for a national tour of the show 'Wages of Spin.' So I had a week to dive in and then we were up and running. Since then I've stayed on with the company as part of the ensemble of company artists and have gone on to work on many projects including 'Deeply offensive and utterly untrue' (about the wheat-for-weapons scandal) and 'This Kind of Ruckus' which just won a Helpmann- hooray.
David Jobling: Indeed! You are very much a physical performer as well as a trained actor - is this what you imagined you be doing while you were an acting student?
Kym Vercoe: By the time I left acting school I was keen to work as a physical performer and that opened up the whole wonderful world of devised theatre. For a number of years I worked between devised physical theatre performing upside-down and other gigs - Shakespeare, etc right-way up. Now I predominately work in devised theatre, whether for version 1.0 or other companies such as Theatre Kantanka. My work tends to still carry a strong physicality though and I also get accused of being fond of making a mess on stage.
David Jobling: What has motivated this production?
Kym Vercoe: Many things, but I think the kernel of this work looks at accountability and acknowledgment. Much of my work seems to revolve around these themes. So whether that's to do with the Australian Government not being called to account for its actions, the plight of people ageing in nursing homes or the slipperiness around bad behaviour by sportsmen, I seem to be driven to make work like this. This show is a much more personal response however, and is concerned with events that took place in a small Bosnian town, which I visited in 2008 and again this year. So this piece looks specifically at history and how we revise and reshape our past in order to move into our future.
David Jobling: How do audiences respond to it?
Kym Vercoe: It hasn't opened yet, but people are certainly very interested when we chat about the show. So I think that audiences will engage with the issues I present. With version 1.0 we always try to open space for public conversation. So I'm confident that this show too will raise questions and encourage people to discuss the issues of place, when the local history has been white-washed, and whether we have a social responsibility as travellers?
David Jobling: Do you think there's enough politically aware performance entertainment in Australia?
Kym Vercoe: I certainly think it's steadily growing. There can probably never be enough. There are so many different forms of entertaining and being entertained. Audiences tend to really enjoy engaging with issues that have relevancy for them and political work does that. It's can be a very satisfying night out for both the audience and performers.
David Jobling: When you develop a work like this how much of your own personality gets built into it?
Kym Vercoe: Lots!! version 1.0 shows incorporate versions (bad pun) of ourselves on stage. So we tend not to present characterisations, rather aspects of ourselves in different circumstances. We're interested in being part of the dilemma, and in that way encouraging our audiences to also be part of that. This show is a whole new ball park though as the story is made by me and driven by me. It's a huge challenge. Luckily when I get sick of myself in rehearsals I have our video artists Sean Bacon to chat to.
David Jobling: Is this a good way to work? It seems that it would be quite demanding..
Kym Vercoe: It is demanding yes. When we work as a large collaborative team it seems like we just argue for weeks and then suddenly there's a show! We have all known each other for long enough to survive that though, and that is one of the great strengths of the company. And now I'm just arguing with myself. The wonderful thing about this process is the enormous sense of ownership you have for the work. I made this from scratch!
David Jobling: What checks and ballances are in place to protect the real you inside the on stage/performing you..?
Kym Vercoe: It depends on the nature of the work. The best way is just being surrounded by the people you work with and having an open dialogue about how you're going. Making devised work tends to be pretty consuming so there are often lots of chats with close friends and family who can be a great support. With a show like this one I try to focus on a sense of gratitude and respect to the people whose story I am telling.
David Jobling: Who should see this work?
Kym Vercoe: Everyone of course! This work raises so many issues that concern us all so i think it will have relevancy for many people on some level. It will also have a strong visual and live music elements that will be very beautiful. It a show for people who like an interesting story.
David Jobling: Do you expect it will lead on to more work with similar theme? I also wonder if the more work of this nature you do, the less interested you become in the David Williamson's or the Tim Daly's?
Kym Vercoe: Yes, my participation in mainstream plays seems to have dwindled. That's not to say I don't find them interesting. I am in love with a great German play i read recently. But again, it's highly political so... It would be nice to do a work that someone has written and play again like that. But inevitably I think I will continue on this path for a while yet.
David Jobling: What is it about something like this, a politicised type of work that attracts you?
Kym Vercoe: It's the immediacy and relevancy of the work. So it's work that reflects all of us, our experiences or our choices. So even if it's a show centred on a Bosnian story, it still touches us and makes us question our world - locally, nationally and internationally. Work like this makes me feel part of a community, the small band of players on stage and the people who sit before me each evening.
David Jobling: What's next?
Kym Vercoe: version 1.0 are making a work straight after this one for B Sharp at Belvoir. It's called 'A distressing scenario' and its focus is the global financial crisis. That takes me through to Christmas, which seems strangely relevant.
seven kilometres north-east
PREVIEW:
WEDNESDAY 29 SEPTEMBER
SEASON:
THURSDAY 30 SEPTEMBER - SATURDAY 16 OCTOBER 2010
TIMES:
TUESDAY - SATURDAY 8PM; SUNDAYS 5PM
TICKETS:
CONCESSION $21
ADULT $29
BEER LAKSA & SHOW (BLS)$35
PREVIEW & CHEAP TUESDAY:
GENERAL $17
BEER LAKSA & SHOW (BLS) $25
WHERE:
TRS Old Fitzroy Theatre, Cnr Cathedral and Dowling Sts, Woolloomooloo
BOOKINGS: www.rocksurfers.org / Moshtix 1300-438-849 or 1300-GET-TIX
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Devised and performed by: Kym Vercoe
Video Artist: Sean Bacon
Dramaturgy: Deborah Pollard
Musical Director: Sladjana Hodzic
Lighting Designer: Emma Lockhart-Wilson
Producer: David Williams
Production Manager: Frank Mainoo
Publicist: Sally Blackwood
Kym Vercoe graduated from UWS/Theatre Nepean in 1996. She became a core member of Company Theatre Physical in 1998 and with them devised and performed Waltz No. 6, Tailing Out, Landed and Overexposed. For Harlos Productions she performed in King Lear in 2001 and 2002.
Most recently she was a performer/devisor on Theatre Kantanka's Missing the Bus to David Jones. For version 1.0 Kym has toured nationally with The Wages of Spin, and worked as a deviser/performer on This kind of ruckus and Deeply offensive and utterly untrue.
I worked with Kym Vercoe on a few productions in the nineteen nineties, we did some development work on a play Ceasefire by the Irish Bag Lady and dramatist Shirley Lewis, and were cast opposite each other in the short film Edge of town as man and wife. We also strutted our stuff together as part of The Self Saucing Mouthful along with Peter McGill, who was cast as a young gentleman opposite Kym in the quirky short Tango in the river.
Vercoe's role in Tango required her to run in full flight, up the side of a tall grassy knoll. She was astonishing to watch charging through the long grass, escaping the horror of this particular marriage her character was being entangled in. Now Kym is working with version 1.0 on a production of seven kilometres north-east, a new performance with video artist Sean Bacon, exploring the discomforting entanglements of place, tourism and atrocity.
The work was triggered by a visit to the famous Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic Bridge, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in 2008. Completed in 1571, this bridge forms an historical link between east and west, made famous in Nobel-prize winning author Ivo Andric's novel The Bridge over the Drina.
The nearby Vilina Vlas Spa Resort in Visegrad, was recommended in a tourist guidebook, and so Vercoe checked in. The visit was a great success, filled with tourist adventures and slivovitz-fueled conversations with locals.
Upon returning home, Vercoe discovered to her horror that certain facts about Visegrad had been omitted from the tourist guidebook. The travelogue shifts, turning to a darker reflection upon how places bear traces of the atrocities that occur within and around them, the unspeakable and unbearable acts that current residents are only too happy to see erased or obscured. Drawing upon journal notes, the writings of Ivo Andric, tourist guidebooks, correspondence with guidebook editors, and transcripts from the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia, seven kilometres north-east is an evocative and deeply personal political performance.
David Jobling: Version 1.0 is well known for being politically astute and entertaining to boot! How have you found yourself working with the company?
Kym Vercoe: I first worked for version 1.0 in 2006 when I was asked to replace a performer for a national tour of the show 'Wages of Spin.' So I had a week to dive in and then we were up and running. Since then I've stayed on with the company as part of the ensemble of company artists and have gone on to work on many projects including 'Deeply offensive and utterly untrue' (about the wheat-for-weapons scandal) and 'This Kind of Ruckus' which just won a Helpmann- hooray.
David Jobling: Indeed! You are very much a physical performer as well as a trained actor - is this what you imagined you be doing while you were an acting student?
Kym Vercoe: By the time I left acting school I was keen to work as a physical performer and that opened up the whole wonderful world of devised theatre. For a number of years I worked between devised physical theatre performing upside-down and other gigs - Shakespeare, etc right-way up. Now I predominately work in devised theatre, whether for version 1.0 or other companies such as Theatre Kantanka. My work tends to still carry a strong physicality though and I also get accused of being fond of making a mess on stage.
David Jobling: What has motivated this production?
Kym Vercoe: Many things, but I think the kernel of this work looks at accountability and acknowledgment. Much of my work seems to revolve around these themes. So whether that's to do with the Australian Government not being called to account for its actions, the plight of people ageing in nursing homes or the slipperiness around bad behaviour by sportsmen, I seem to be driven to make work like this. This show is a much more personal response however, and is concerned with events that took place in a small Bosnian town, which I visited in 2008 and again this year. So this piece looks specifically at history and how we revise and reshape our past in order to move into our future.
David Jobling: How do audiences respond to it?
Kym Vercoe: It hasn't opened yet, but people are certainly very interested when we chat about the show. So I think that audiences will engage with the issues I present. With version 1.0 we always try to open space for public conversation. So I'm confident that this show too will raise questions and encourage people to discuss the issues of place, when the local history has been white-washed, and whether we have a social responsibility as travellers?
David Jobling: Do you think there's enough politically aware performance entertainment in Australia?
Kym Vercoe: I certainly think it's steadily growing. There can probably never be enough. There are so many different forms of entertaining and being entertained. Audiences tend to really enjoy engaging with issues that have relevancy for them and political work does that. It's can be a very satisfying night out for both the audience and performers.
David Jobling: When you develop a work like this how much of your own personality gets built into it?
Kym Vercoe: Lots!! version 1.0 shows incorporate versions (bad pun) of ourselves on stage. So we tend not to present characterisations, rather aspects of ourselves in different circumstances. We're interested in being part of the dilemma, and in that way encouraging our audiences to also be part of that. This show is a whole new ball park though as the story is made by me and driven by me. It's a huge challenge. Luckily when I get sick of myself in rehearsals I have our video artists Sean Bacon to chat to.
David Jobling: Is this a good way to work? It seems that it would be quite demanding..
Kym Vercoe: It is demanding yes. When we work as a large collaborative team it seems like we just argue for weeks and then suddenly there's a show! We have all known each other for long enough to survive that though, and that is one of the great strengths of the company. And now I'm just arguing with myself. The wonderful thing about this process is the enormous sense of ownership you have for the work. I made this from scratch!
David Jobling: What checks and ballances are in place to protect the real you inside the on stage/performing you..?
Kym Vercoe: It depends on the nature of the work. The best way is just being surrounded by the people you work with and having an open dialogue about how you're going. Making devised work tends to be pretty consuming so there are often lots of chats with close friends and family who can be a great support. With a show like this one I try to focus on a sense of gratitude and respect to the people whose story I am telling.
David Jobling: Who should see this work?
Kym Vercoe: Everyone of course! This work raises so many issues that concern us all so i think it will have relevancy for many people on some level. It will also have a strong visual and live music elements that will be very beautiful. It a show for people who like an interesting story.
David Jobling: Do you expect it will lead on to more work with similar theme? I also wonder if the more work of this nature you do, the less interested you become in the David Williamson's or the Tim Daly's?
Kym Vercoe: Yes, my participation in mainstream plays seems to have dwindled. That's not to say I don't find them interesting. I am in love with a great German play i read recently. But again, it's highly political so... It would be nice to do a work that someone has written and play again like that. But inevitably I think I will continue on this path for a while yet.
David Jobling: What is it about something like this, a politicised type of work that attracts you?
Kym Vercoe: It's the immediacy and relevancy of the work. So it's work that reflects all of us, our experiences or our choices. So even if it's a show centred on a Bosnian story, it still touches us and makes us question our world - locally, nationally and internationally. Work like this makes me feel part of a community, the small band of players on stage and the people who sit before me each evening.
David Jobling: What's next?
Kym Vercoe: version 1.0 are making a work straight after this one for B Sharp at Belvoir. It's called 'A distressing scenario' and its focus is the global financial crisis. That takes me through to Christmas, which seems strangely relevant.
seven kilometres north-east
PREVIEW:
WEDNESDAY 29 SEPTEMBER
SEASON:
THURSDAY 30 SEPTEMBER - SATURDAY 16 OCTOBER 2010
TIMES:
TUESDAY - SATURDAY 8PM; SUNDAYS 5PM
TICKETS:
CONCESSION $21
ADULT $29
BEER LAKSA & SHOW (BLS)$35
PREVIEW & CHEAP TUESDAY:
GENERAL $17
BEER LAKSA & SHOW (BLS) $25
WHERE:
TRS Old Fitzroy Theatre, Cnr Cathedral and Dowling Sts, Woolloomooloo
BOOKINGS: www.rocksurfers.org / Moshtix 1300-438-849 or 1300-GET-TIX
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Devised and performed by: Kym Vercoe
Video Artist: Sean Bacon
Dramaturgy: Deborah Pollard
Musical Director: Sladjana Hodzic
Lighting Designer: Emma Lockhart-Wilson
Producer: David Williams
Production Manager: Frank Mainoo
Publicist: Sally Blackwood
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