DJ Granny Returns: Turning the Tables on Ageism
When Lachlan Philpott’s play, M.Rock, was first staged in 2014, it was received with enthusiastic energy. Valerie Bader returns with the same energy to reprise her role as the DJ granny in the Australian Theatre for Young People’s new mounting of the production this June and July.
M.Rock is inspired by the true story of Ruth Flowers, an English woman who decided in her late seventies that she wanted to be a DJ. She ended up playing the best clubs around the world and amassing a huge fan base before she died in 2014 aged 83.
In Philpott’s play, M.Rock is Mabel, an unassuming Australian grandmother who knits for charity and plays piano with a local group. Her impetuous granddaughter, Tracey, is on the verge of starting uni but instead takes off for a European adventure. She fails to return when scheduled, and Mabel drops her knitting needles and boards a plane, determined to find her errant granddaughter. What she finds instead is her own re-invigorated youth and a talent for mixing she didn’t know she had.
Mabel and Tracey independently end up in the frenetic techno club scenes of Berlin, each on their own journey of discovery but ultimately learning about themselves and each other.
This is a story about coming of age and agelessness, about bridging generational gaps through love and mutual respect.
Acclaimed Australian-gone-international DJ, Venus Guy Trap, will provide the background grooves to make this a fully immersive, feel-good experience.
June 21 – July 17; tickets from $45 + bf; The Rebel Theatre, Pier 2/3, 13A Hickson Road, Dawes Point.
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