'Theatrical wunderkinds Sisters Grimm, creators of the sell-out, award-winning NEON Festival hit The Sovereign Wife, take audiences on an epic, genre-defying journey.
'When a young wild girl is captured in the rainforests of Borneo, all of Holland is set abuzz. The year is 1861, and pioneering neuroscientist Charles Penworth is called upon to raise the child from the pit of her animal nature. But as Lilith learns to tame her feral heart and live amongst the glitterati of colonial Amsterdam, she begins to wonder, who, indeed, is the real savage?
'Theatrical wunderkinds Sisters Grimm, creators of the sell-out, award-winning NEON Festival hit The Sovereign Wife, take audiences on an epic, genre-defying journey – equal parts The Elephant Man and She’s All That.
'With the title role played by Ash Flanders, star of MTC’s one-man comedy Buyer and Cellar, this bold new piece promises to be as mind-altering and caustically funny as all of Sisters Grimm’s work to date.' (Production summary)
A Sisters Grimm production, commissioned and presented by Melbourne Theatre Company. World Premiere at The Lawler, Swanbank Theatre, Southbank Victoria : 1 September - 1 October 2016.
Director: Declan Greene.
Set and Costume Designer: Marg Horwell.
Lighting Designer: Benjamin Cisterne.
Composer and Sound Designer: The Sweats.
Video Design and Animation: Emma Valente.
Dramaturg: Nakkiah Lui.
Cast: Candy Bowers (Charles Penworth), Ash Flanders (Lilith), and Genevieve Giuffre (Helen Travers).
'After graduating with a Bachelor of Dramatic Arts, Acting degree from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 2001, she rose to prominence as co-creator and performer in the cult hip-hop comedy act Sista She (with Sarah Ward, Kim 'Busty Beatz' Bowers, DJ Jonah and sometimes double bassist Thomas Butt), who toured Australia from 2003 to 2008. [...]Candy has worked as an actor on Australia's mainstages and starred in television sketch comedy shows, but is most well known for her original independent theatre works, including Who's That Chik? (2009), MC Platypus and Queen Koala (2012-13), Hot Brown Honey Burlesque (2013-15), Australian Booty (2012-19) and One the Bear (Arts Centre Melbourne/ Sydney Opera House 2019). Candy is currently a part of the British Council of the Arts INTERSECT UKAustralia peer mentorship initiative, she holds a MentorLA Fellowship interning with Peter Saji, is the showrunner of Black-ish (US TV series) in Los Angeles, and is also in the early stages of her first feature film with Arena Media. In high school, my debating teacher pushed my skills by throwing me in teams with senior students so by the time l was fourteen, I was winning wholeschool public speaking contests against seventeen-year-olds.' (Publication abstract)
'After graduating with a Bachelor of Dramatic Arts, Acting degree from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 2001, she rose to prominence as co-creator and performer in the cult hip-hop comedy act Sista She (with Sarah Ward, Kim 'Busty Beatz' Bowers, DJ Jonah and sometimes double bassist Thomas Butt), who toured Australia from 2003 to 2008. [...]Candy has worked as an actor on Australia's mainstages and starred in television sketch comedy shows, but is most well known for her original independent theatre works, including Who's That Chik? (2009), MC Platypus and Queen Koala (2012-13), Hot Brown Honey Burlesque (2013-15), Australian Booty (2012-19) and One the Bear (Arts Centre Melbourne/ Sydney Opera House 2019). Candy is currently a part of the British Council of the Arts INTERSECT UKAustralia peer mentorship initiative, she holds a MentorLA Fellowship interning with Peter Saji, is the showrunner of Black-ish (US TV series) in Los Angeles, and is also in the early stages of her first feature film with Arena Media. In high school, my debating teacher pushed my skills by throwing me in teams with senior students so by the time l was fourteen, I was winning wholeschool public speaking contests against seventeen-year-olds.' (Publication abstract)