PRESENTED BY APPLESPIEL & METRO ARTS

JARROD DUFFY IS NOT DEAD

20 - 29 APRIL 2017Have you ever known someone who just … vanished?

JARROD DUFFY IS NOT DEADIt’s Wollongong, 2010. Jarrod Duffy, friend and member of Applespiel, doesn’t show up to rehearsal one day. He’s disappeared, leaving behind the furniture at his house and no explanation. Phone, email and Facebook all yield no results. Jarrod Duffy Is Not Dead is the story of that disappearance and Applespiel’s hunt to find their missing friend.

Drawing on a wide range of interest points, including the rise of crowd-funding, the cult popularity of podcasts such as This American Life’s Serial and the ethics of personal stories in theatre, Jarrod Duffy Is Not Dead is a complex and playful exploration of truth.

APPLESPIELApplespiel are a collective of eight artists who collaborate as performers, musicians, technicians and devisers. The team have been working together since 2009 testing dynamic audience relationships, engaging in personal stories, and dissecting structures of mythology in society. After performing around Australia and internationally, this is Applespiel’s first trip to Brisbane.Applespiel are Simon Binns, Nathan Harrison, Nikki Kennedy, Emma McManus, Joseph Parro, Mark Rogers, Troy Reid, and Rachel Roberts.

CREATIVESDevised and Performed byNathan HarrisonNikki KennedyEmma McManusRachel Roberts / Troy ReidMark Rogers

Lighting Design by Emma Lockhart-Wilson

Original Sound Composition by Tom Hogan

FROM THE ARTISTThis show began from an impulse to talk about our hometowns. This is about 4 years ago. We’d all moved to the big city, and being from country towns or regional centres around NSW, that felt like something we could “investigate” as a company. Something we could build a show around. During our first workshop though, our thoughts kept on being drawn to another story. One that was happening in the real world, and one that we were all actually wrapped up in. We lost interest in our own stories of Wagga Wagga, Canberra, Wollongong, Taree, Campbelltown and Goulburn and found ourselves thinking about a friend of ours. A friend that we’d lost. We started thinking about the story of Jarrod Duffy.

Weirdly, we realised that this story also touched on our original impulse. It was about returning home. But we also think it’s about loss, escape and the pressures of friendship. And maybe about exploitation too, about what stories do for the storyteller and audience compared to what they do for their subjects. Sarah Koenig vs Adnan Syed, Brian Reed vs John B Macklemore.

Like all our works, Jarrod Duffy Is Not Dead takes a familiar cultural form and inhabits it. Here it’s a podcast. We practiced vocal-fry and did our best impersonations of Ira Glass. We got emotive musical branding to sit under our words. But we put our radio studio under theatre lights. We want to tell a story, but we also want you to SEE us tell it, to see HOW we tell it, to sense what we decided to leave in or out.

For Applespiel, the meaning is in the form.

SPECIAL THANKSSpecial thanks to Metro Arts, Alistair Davies, Mark Mitchell, Julia Johnson, Troy Reid, Debbie Reid, Sanja Simic, Bri Zammit, Tamika Jones. For believing in this work and giving it the time to grow, thanks to Leland Kean at Merrigong Theatre Company, Emma Webb, Jason Sweeney at Vitalstatistix, Lyn Wallis, Tahni Froudist at Hothouse Theatre.

And of course, thank you Jarrod Duffy for letting us tell your story.

Jo ThomasCreative Director

Jess Murphy Business Director

Kate Usher Associate Producer

Emmaly Langridge Communications Manager

Shani Gould Programming and Marketing Coordinator

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Metro Arts acknowledges the traditional custodians of Brisbane, the Turrbal and Jagera people and their unique relationship with their ancestral country. We pay respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders, and recognise their strength, wisdom and creativity.

Have you ever known someone who just … vanished?Metro Arts and Jarrod Duffy Is Not Dead are supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. Metro Arts is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland,

part of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet. Metro Arts is proudly supported by Brisbane City Council. Jarrod Duffy Is Not Dead was developed with the support of Merrigong Theatre Company Studio Sessions Program. Jarrod Duffy Is Not Dead was assisted through HotHouse Theatre’s A Month in the Country residential program, a

project delivered in partnership with Albury City.