Bring The Noise

Allison Wiltshire, Zoey Dawson and Anna McCarthy formed theatre company I'm Trying to Kiss You in 2009, determined to make work that broke the mould. Wiltshire explains why. “We were really excited by [many of the independent] companies in Melbourne who make work that is outside the traditional realm of theatre... What we noticed [however] was that there wasn't really a female voice in that independent theatre group.”

This March they are bringing back their hit 2011 production, I Know There's A Lot Of Noise Outside But You Have To Close Your Eyes. Described as “an explosive exploration of femininity, prejudice and rage – with cocktails”, the play follows two characters who have been friends since high school and who meet up one Friday night for a drink. Wiltshire elaborates, “As their conversation continues you learn that they don't really have anything in common, and that their friendship is much more based on trying to 'up' the other, to be the more successful girl, the prettier one, or the one with more boyfriends.” As the evening goes on the play's narrative begins to unravel. “You start to see their internal worlds... which are completely isolated [and] fuelled by their inability to really connect and be open with somebody else.”

The idea for the play came, like much of the trio's work, from personal experience. “I think one of us had met up with an old high school friend, and had seen an awful side of ourselves, talking about 'I do this and I do that, I'm so great',” Wiltshire laughs. “We were just trying to understand why we have friendships like that. So one of us wrote a scene about it, and another one of us wrote a piece in response to that, and so the show was developed with a really collaborative writing process.” When the writing was finished, Wiltshire moved into the role of director with Dawson and McCarthy taking up the parts of the two characters.

Competitivity, loneliness and an inability to connect are all things that Wiltshire thinks will chime for many 20-something women. “[We talked a lot about] the fear that when we go out and present ourselves in a social setting, we are [often] just performing a version of ourselves that we want people to see us as.” It's a pressure that Wiltshire attributes to society's 'feminine mould', and the way that advertising, the media, and all the trappings of modern society bombard us with images of how to be.

With gender on her mind, while working on the play Wiltshire says she began applying the famous Bechdel Test for sexism to movies that she watched. In order to pass, a film must feature at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. Few pass the test, depicting the lives of women mainly through their relationships with men. But Wiltshire thinks that might be on the cusp of changing, with drama that explores women's – often complex – relationships with each other on the rise in TV, film, and stage. It's about time, she thinks. “In the age we live in, female friendships are so much more important for living in your 20s; for growing up, [and] for wondering about who you are.”