Hydra Poesis

Love is not the answer…Featuring dance, theatre and healthy doses of agitprop design opulence, this work is a provocative, entertaining and adult extrapolation of the childhood game of risk: truth, dare, physical challenge. It is a uniquely high stakes, double blind experience. Personal Political Physical Challenge is created by West Australian hybrid performance company Hydra Poesis, and will be travelling to Melbourne in August 2012. 

“There are party politics, gender politics, class politics and moral conundrums to navigate and an unforgettable ‘Jane Fonda Workout’ integrated into the choreography. The pacing and dynamics are beautifully pitched. This is a piece that delights and surprises; thoroughly entertaining.” – The West Australian

We, Hydra Poesis, are a small performance company based in Perth WA. We created Personal Political Physical Challenge in 2010 and have now been accepted to bring this work to the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne. Above existing funds, we need to raise another $5000 to make this possible for the touring party of 7. Our team includes director Sam Fox –recently awarded one of the inaugural Sidney Myer Creative Fellowships – an ensemble cast led by Rachel Arianne Ogle and James Welsby, and an exquisite original score by Perth’s woman-Korg-laptop-matrix Stina. This is a big opportunity for us and a chance to redevelop a project that we believe is very important, timely and aesthetically unique.

The project investigates the politics of Australian Suburbia by appropriating the form of melodrama and taking it somewhere very unusual. The work follows a couple trying to reignite their stale relationship not through the usual means (sex games, adventurism) but by undertaking radicalising exercises in their garage. The work utilises contemporary dance, theatre and performance art modes.

Remounting performance is one of the only real ways to develop a performance project and the Malthouse Theatre is one of the premiere venues for experimental performance in Australia. We are at an exciting point in our development with a number of projects ready to deploy around the country and this tour is the first big step to reaching Australia wide audiences. We need to get to audiences and we think you might need us in your life too!

Rachel Ogle & Martin Hansen
Image: Traianos Pakioufakis

‘where I think [PPPC] differs from lesser experimental theatre experiences is that with Fox’s production the cohesion is in the ‘playing’; the flow of the antagonism, and desires of the characters, the artfully achieved march of time both personal and political. It strikes a rich resonant chord’ Arts Hub

Bianca Martin
Image: Traianos Pakioufakis

‘the manic tension between [the text], the witty choreography and design, the eclectic music, and stunning performances (particularly by Rachel Ogle) make it worth the concentration needed.’ The Australian

Bianca Martin, Heath Barrett, Rachel Ogle, Martin Hansen & Kathryn Puie

Image: Traianos Pakioufakis