CHEER UP KID

CHEER UP KID

Adult-sized writer Nat Randall admits that she was a, “pretty anxious child.” Cheer Up Kid, as part of this year’s Tiny Stadiums Festival, is her one-woman tragi-comedy mining the rich soils of parental paranoia and childhood angst.

“I’m just generally fascinated by the way kids operate in the world particularly how they are limited by their vocabulary. Expressing emotion and frustration then becomes quite difficult for the little fellas. In terms of parents, I’m really intrigued by the all the coaching guides and paraphernalia on how to be a good parent and the anxieties surrounding ‘parenting the right way’. It’s paradoxically devastating and hilarious at the same time, to me anyhow.”

It’s a paradox that has spawned many of the most enduring female caricatures in film. As the archetypal parental figure, the matriarch becomes the dumping ground for all our fears and failures. Randall reels off a list of her favourites, from whom Cheer Up Kid draws inspiration: “Misery – Kathy Bates; Through the Looking Glass – Carol Channing; She Devil – Rosanne Barr; Matilda – Agatha Trunchball; Steel Magnolias – Shirley MacLaine; oh oh…one more, Mama Fratelli in The Goonies.”

“These women endure in film because they endure in real life,” continues Randall. “They are also incredibly complex and very funny. I think society would crumble without these women.”

With a focus on botched efforts and eccentric characters, Cheer Up Kid might not actually succeed in cheering up anyone. But for us, Randall agreed to give an imaginary gloomy kid a free bit of advice: “I’d be like ‘hey matey are you ok?’ and they’d be like ‘nuh’. Then I probably wouldn’t say anything, I’d just put my arm around their shoulder.”

May 3-15, in a double-bill with Applespiel’s Executive Stress/Corporate Retreat, PACT, 107 Railway Pde, Erskineville, $15 single, $25 double, greentix.com.au

TINY STADIUMS TO-DO!

The Live Art Weekend descends on Erko village May 14-15 – these are our picks:

  • Get into the Gigloo, a handmade inflatable igloo
  • Catch Bennett Miller’s filmic ode to the much-loathed ibis
  • Skill-up the cinchy way with Lara Thoms’ The Experts Project

Hit up quarterbred.blogspot.com for more information.

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