Tattoo Show & Sincere Apologies | Theatre Excursion + Drama Club
Hey friend, No Drama Drama Club is a little community building project about going to the theatre. We love seeing shows but wish the theatre was more of a group affair, with the same energy as a book club. So, this is our experiment to see what that would look like.
For our second iteration of this club, we’re organising a double bill of shows at the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
We’ll start the night off with a 6pm showing of Tattoo Show, followed by a 7:30pm showing of Sincere Apologies, both at the Fringe’s festival hub: Trades Hall.
Afterwards, we’ll gather for a No Drama Drama Club meeting where we’ll talk about the shows in a friendly supportive space. We'll take care of buying your tickets so you can just book with us and show up.
We’re big fans of keeping our community safe, so this is a mask-required event. Ryan will have some spare N95s to hand out before the shows if you need one. Thanks for looking out for each other.
This event is hosted on the unceded land of the Kulin nations. We pay our respects to their elders past and present. If you’re a settler like us, you should be paying the rent.
📢 About the shows
Both shows run for 60 minutes each.
Tattoo Show is a new show by Rawcus, an ensemble of diverse minds, bodies and imaginations who create boundary breaking theatre. This show invites one audience volunteer to get a tattoo live on stage while the ensemble designs the tattoo based on conversations with them. Rawcus’ work is consistently phenomenal, winning them the Green Room award for best indie theatre production last year for Interior. Ryan saw this last year and it was one of his highlights of the year.
Sincere Apologies is a participatory work examining how we apologise by Alternative Facts. This company generally works with verbatim text, which is when you use transcripts of conversations to build the show. This show is performed by the audience who read out real apologies.
David Williams, who co-created the work, has said this about the participatory nature of the show:
This work involves a lot of audience participation. It’s all scripted, non-compulsory, simple, very gentle, non-judgemental, and clearly structured.
The audience will be seated in 2 concentric circles of chairs (56 in all). The are 4 aisles in these chair circles. There are microphones in each aisle, and one in the centre of the circle.
To learn more about the shows and read content warnings & access notes, you can visit the event listing for Tattoo Show and Sincere Apologies.
💸 Booking info
If you’d like to book your own tickets to the show, either to see them on an earlier date, because you have access to an artist discount, or are eligible for Blaktix or Fringe Member discounts—that’s completely fine.
Just book a ‘BYO Tix’ with us and we’ll know to look out for you—but we won’t book your tickets for you.
For full transparency, the cost of tickets with us are slightly above the total on the Fringe website due to the transaction fees on this platform. However, it’s ultimately cheaper than booking on your own, as we’ll be splitting the booking fee amongst thirty people.
We anticipate that we’ll sell out our ticket allocation, so if you’re keen for a mask-required theatre excursion you should book in as soon as you can.
⏳ Schedule
NB Times may vary slightly
5:30pm — We’ll meet you in the courtyard for some introductions and to organise tickets
6:00pm — Tattoo Show begins in Solidarity Hall
7:00pm — Show ends, some time to head to the bathroom, and we’ll make our way to the next show
7:30pm — Sincere Apologies begins in The Square
8:30pm — Show ends, a short ten minute break.
8:40pm — We’ll gather somewhere (TBC) for our No Drama Drama Club with a structured group yap about the show.
10:00pm — Time to head home
💬 No Drama Drama Club Discussion
Here’s our plan for hosting our drama club. It may change slightly but it’s pretty close, we think!
Housekeeping — Safety mechanisms and venue information
Icebreakers & Introductions — Maybe a little drama game? 👀
First takes — We’ll all share a star rating to the show and jot down some initial thoughts
Group discussion — A chat facilitated by Jenna & Ryan who’ll have some great questions prepared 🤓
Second takes — We’ll write & share our own mini reviews with amended star ratings (or maybe no rating, if that’s how you roll)
Chat amongst yourselvesı — We’ll pack up but keep the space open to chat to your new friends & theatrical accomplices
🗺️ Meeting Point
From the river to the sea, always was, always will be.