The (Not Quite) Wonder Years

“He's observed us for quite a while in secret, he was doing a David Attenborough,” says Jonathon Oxlade, sat at a table at the Wharf a few hours before he will portray an infinitely daggier version of himself on stage.

School Dance was developed by South Australia's Windmill Theatre Company following discussion between director Rosemary Myers and playwright/performer Matthew Whittet. Myers, Whittet, Oxlade and School Dance sound designer/performer Luke Smiles had worked together previously on another Windmill production, Fugitive, and it was during the downtime of this production that the seed for School Dance was planted.

“I think Rose saw that we got along quite well, and maybe that we got along – and maybe this a good thing – that we got along in a slightly 'juvenile' way,” Oxlade admits, a sheepish laugh overlapping the last few words. “Matt and Rose as a team have always been interested in writing stories about that liminal space between childhood and adulthood, around the teenage world, and so this work sits in a similar space as what Fugitive did, which was a tale loosely based on Robin Hood but with all the characters as teenagers. This is a bit younger, more puberty based.”

The play follows a tight-knit group of three losers as they attend the highlight of the early-teenage social calendar, the school dance. “Essentially it's an amazing script written by Matt,” that is, the Attenborough doppelganger Oxlade referenced earlier, “who's kind of harnessed all these things and found them all in us. Even down to the way that we talk - it's amplified in it - and our actions. It's like seeing yourself in a weird mirror, a funhouse mirror. You ramp it up, get a bit weird on it.

“Matt nailed it. When I read the first three pages it was like, 'Oh, I do sound like that! Oh my God, that's annoying!' I probably would have been written a little bit… different,” Oxlade cheekily concedes.

School Dance

Having already been written into the earliest draft, the creative team offered up stories from their pasts, from those awkward formative years, to help shape the show. “We shared everything from household abuse to hiding away in – literally and metaphorically – closets; it's all of that kind of world. We talked about how people treated us, bullies, having those first feelings towards someone, all sorts of stuff like that.” A more upbeat recollection spurs him on. “And also being complete idiots in that time!”

Just as Whittet found inspiration from the real-life characters surrounding him, the content of the show required only a similar retrospective glance to a world of roller skates, Blue Light discos, high-topped sneakers and acid-wash jeans. For Oxlade (who not only performs in the show, but also designed it), who was too young to completely embrace the fashion of the '80s, the inspiration for design came from memories of his older sister.

“Usually in design you do look at film – it's a good benchmark for period and stuff – but this one came quite organically in a way. My sister was wearing the fashions of the '80s as a teenager so I've got lots of memories of her clothing…” Oxlade trails off another hilarious revelation: “I can remember having a pair of stone-wash jeans that were really too high. That's why I'm wearing them now, I think.”

WHAT: School Dance
WHEN & WHERE: 12 to 16 Mar, Adelaide Festival, Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre