Wombat Land

Suitcase Royale are a comedy troupe, but immediately that encloses what the experience of their shows is like. They cultivate a great sense of place, which is a result of a real keenness of creative vision. Their stories breathe, and come alive; richer for their influences; more universal as an end-product. They're progressive, even avant-garde, and yet never to the detriment of reliability, or just being plain entertaining. Their shows are all of those superlatives, and more, and, surprisingly for a theatre group, things often start with a love for classic films.

“[We] are hugely inspired by film, both the classics and the new,” Miles O'Neil starts. “With each production we create, you can usually trace its origins back to a film or style of film. For The Ballad Of Backbone Joe, it was Film Noir. For Zombatland we looked at the Australian shlock films of the '70s and '80s referred to as Ozplotation. Films like Mad Max, The Cars That Ate Paris, Turkey Shoot and Razorback. The low budget rock'n'roll aesthetic of those films really suits our style of theatre making and allowed us to have a lot of fun in the process of making the show.” 

When asked if his touchstones have ever edged into Marx Brothers or Stooges territory, O'Neil shares that the group have moved on from those for now. “We are inspired by [those guys] and have enjoyed referencing them in earlier shows. This show [however] is more inspired by Australian films. It's like Mad Max meets Muriel's Wedding.”

“Your [ideals are] always changing,” he adds. “You think you have [them fixed] and then you turn around and that ideal has turned into something different.” Thematically, too, the shows of Suitcase Royale's are inherently a diverse kettle of fish. Not only do O'Neil's own ideals shift, but each member of the group has to reconcile with the differing creative impulses of the two other members.

“We all get hooked on different things and bring them into the rehearsal room, a bit like the Voltron of theatre,” he explains. “We do share many tastes when it comes to aesthetics and music, [but there's] enough difference to keep it interesting, and [we have] enough in common to make it work.” Still, there is a comfort, he suggests, in the group “… [sharing] the knowledge that whatever we set out to make, the end result will be very different.”

Zombatland, the most recent and impressive of those results, began with the outfit wanting to explore the idea of The Western. “And look what we came out with!” O'Neil laughs. “A zombie apocalypse set in a run down caravan park...you can never tell [with these things].” It all changed, he explains, when one member of the outfit discovered an article about a wombat chewing through some poor camper's tent.  “One of us found [the] article…and we started laughing about wombats taking over a caravan park. About a week later we were still talking about it so we decided to make it the focus of the show. [And really,] if we don't, then who? Who will tell the plight of the Zombats?!”

WHAT: Zombatland

WHEN & WHERE: Wednesday 10 to Saturday 20 October, Brisbane Powerhouse