Benjamin Millar
Stereotypes and prejudices tied to different generations are under the spotlight in the latest creative work by Footscray performers Sarah Ward and Bec Matthews.
The pair were invited to create an online experience for this year’s Victorian Seniors Festival, delivering musical performance ‘The Conversation’.
Ward said the piece is based upon the spontaneous encounter of two friends of quite different ages.
“Rather than asking them to write words for us we ended up just writing down the conversation and then we turned that into the song,” she said.
“The song is called The Conversation and it’s just about incidental things around the lockdown.”
Victorian seniors can visit the performance online, alongside an eclectic range of video and radio programs as part of this year’s festival.
Ward said that she and Matthews were drawn to include the piece out of the wish to break down prejudices around people in their older years.
“I think when younger generations tend to look at older generations in our society, we see people who are past it, but a lot of them were extremely radical and still are,” she said.
“I don’t want to think about age as a stopper on humour, I don’t want to think people lose their humour or edge with age – I don’t think that’s true.”
Ward said the work was largely devised online doe to the lockdown, which has completely reshaped the world of performance.
“I’m a performing artist, my practice is mainly in cabaret which is an area of performing arts I was drawn to because you can write your own songs and create your own material and be quite political and express what you want to express,” she said.
“I met Bec at the Women’s Circus which is just up the road, we realised we worked really well together and we also fell in love, so we call ourselves partners in art and in life.”
Reflecting up on the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted on the arts, Ward said it was more important than ever to support creativity.
“My feeling is that well funded arts organisations and local governments and the federal government need to really pull their finger out and start putting money behind the arts because I don’t want to put a whole lot of pressure on audiences to have to come out and support us when they are nervous and in transition,” she said.
“For me I don’t blame people if they’re nervous, so it becomes about how can we keep our audiences small enough – we need to be supported so we can keep the arts alive.”
Visit: seniorsonline.vic.gov.au
