Current Artist in Residence, Chalise van Wyngaardt, opens play in this year's Melbourne Fringe Festival
Our current Artist in Residence Chalise van Wyngaardt opens her new play Objectophilia as part of the Fringe Festival on the 14th of September. Written by Charlise during her residency here at Montsalvat, it’s a must see!
MELBOURNE SPOKEN WORD PRODIGY CHALISE VAN WYNGAARDT PRESENTS ‘OBJECTOPHILIA’: THE ONE WOMAN ROMANCE WITH A CAST OF TWO
What kind of love is too taboo for you to accept? Queer spoken word artist and theatre-maker Chalise van Wyngaardt throws out the question this Melbourne Fringe in her latest one-woman play: Objectophilia, a psycho-romantic drama with a not-so-conventional love interest: a lamp. Poetic spoken-word monologue and neurotic physical theatre collide as Chalise dives into the mind of the Objectophile (or Objectum-Sexual), cracking open a conversation that will make you wish you stayed home with a nice RomCom.
The core focus of Chalise’s spoken-word and theatre has always been the intersection of faith and sexuality. She received full house standing ovations last Melbourne Fringe and has toured her spoken word poetry through numerous events and festivals across Australia. Objectophilia is Chalise’s most daring step yet, towards solving the age old conundrum: What is the nature of love and sexuality?
‘It started off as a joke,’ says Chalise, ‘I was drinking beers with a mate one night, and he started impersonating a hypermasculine aussie bloke who was so lonely, he formed an intimate relationship with a lamp. He just would not let this joke go, telling me in length about all the dates he’d go on with this lamp, ‘till he started crying about the fact that the bartender laughed his relationship off and wouldn’t serve his lamp a drink at the pub. Then it struck me – this story sounds exactly like the story of being queer in a conservative right-wing society!’
Chalise’s research found an entire community of ‘objectum-sexuals’ (a term coined by the woman who married the Berlin Wall) whose coming-out stories sound all-too-similar to her own story, and to so many stories in the LGBTQI community. ‘So where’s the line?’ Asks Chalise, ‘and if there isn’t one, where’s our trigger?’
‘Chalise is in love with language, and language loves her right back. As a poet and performer she has never not impressed me.’ Steve Smart, MPU President
“Chalise has sparks of Dante, Keats, Shakespeare, Ginsberg, with even more raw power than Patti Smith…” ―Peter Davis, 3CR Spoken Word
OBJECTOPHILIA
Dates: September 14 – 21 (excl. Monday 17th)
Times: 7:45 PM (6:45 PM Sunday) (50 minutes)
Venue: Son of Loft, Lithuanian Club, 44 Errol St, North Melbourne
Tickets: Full $20, Conc. $18.50, Preview $17, Group 4+ $17.50ea
TO BOOK TICKETS visit melbournefringe.com.au or call (03) 9660 9666
For media enquiries contact: Chalise van Wyngaardt, 0402 709 606 or chalisevw@gmail.com
