We Did Die Laughing

In 2015, Back to Back Theatre’s experimental arm Theatre of Speed presented We Did Die Laughing as part of Geelong After Dark. Staged in the intimate confines of the company’s own studio, the work unfolded as a durational performance-installation: live performers, and a labyrinthine stroll through offices and corridors, with 300 members of the Geelong community as participants.

The genesis of We Did Die Laughing lay in sketchy workshops called the “Suitability Agency,” in which participants developed intimate public services rooted in personal obsessions, navigating bureaucratic absurdities, the blurred politics of provision, and the borderline-between dysfunction and transformation. Over months of development, these provocations were sculpted into a psychedelic spatial and performative encounter, an immersive critique of systems that trap rather than empower.

Presented in Back to Back’s studios as part of Geelong After Dark 2015, the work offered audiences a visceral, collective journey. It was a creative revolt against inane bureaucracy — a theatrical process in which participants became unwitting stakeholders in a surreal experience designed to blur the lines between client, consumer, and citizen. The Service Manual (3rd edition) describes it thus:

“We built a Nomologically Digressive Internment System where clients were encouraged to effectively transition from consumer to stakeholder through a unique process of focused advocacy and self-determination. It was revolution in contemporary service provision, a transfixional series of live encounters aimed at delivering efficient, flexible, poetic outcomes.”

Team:

Director - Jason Maling

Devisors & Performers - Theatre of Speed artists

Set Design - Mark Cuthbertson

Lighting Design - Kris Chainey

Stage Manager - Elise Brokensha

Technical Support - Pat Scaddan

Secondments - Kate Stone & Iris Gaillard

Workshop Facilitators (in development phase / supporting roles) - Alisa Tanaka-King, Chris Kohn, Iris Gaillard, James Jackson, Jason Maling, John Howard, Tamara Searle & Wendy Grose

Participating Artists - Adam Berry, Ben Oakes, Brian Tilley, James Lewis, Jessica Walker, Laura Berrisford, Mark Deans, Phoebe Baker, Polly Munday, Robbie Croft, Romany Latham, Rose McLachlan, Sarah Mainwaring, Scott Price, Simon Laherty & Tamika Simpson

Artist Support -Leanne Stein

Secondment Support - Jessica Leaming, Kate Stones, Suzanne Inglebrecht & Sherilee Kahui