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[title]Staring out the window at the lashing rain and stormy grey skies of Melbourne’s ‘summer’, it seems like perfect timing to talk to queer theatre-maker extraordinaire Ash Flanders about his new cabaret show SS Metaphor. Set on a cruise ship that’s been at sea for a year following some unmentioned global disaster that’s made it unsafe to land, the show is set to reopen the Malthouse Theatre’s outdoor stage as its first major production.
Flanders chuckles at the irony of the inopportune weather. “Anytime I’ve had to do theatre outdoors, unless it’s entirely drenching, you go on with the show,” he says. “SS Metaphor is funny enough that, even if we were getting rained on, you’ll have a good time. I can guarantee that. I mean, what’s better for a disaster parody than torrential rain? We’re trying to book the earthquake back too.”
A good time is what we all need right now, he notes. “Live theatre offers razzle-dazzle right in front of your eyes. That’s certainly what I wanted to see coming out of two years of lockdown. I want something big, colourful and theatrical that’s not a prestige Netflix drama.”
Of course, this being a Flanders show, you can expect madcap mayhem and an innuendo or two. “It’s messy and it’s big, and it’s loud and ridiculous,” he promises.
As directed by Sarah Giles (Blaque Showgirls, No Pay? No Way!), Flanders “joking around in bad wigs” is joined in this jukebox musical of sorts by co-stars Natalie Gamsu, Will Conyers and rising star Zenya Carmellotti. “Sarah and I have managed to curate the greatest cast of kooks,” Flanders says. “Natalie has worked for mainstage companies and travelled all round the world. She was a singer on a cruise ship at one point, and a cabaret diva in New York, who has also done intense Shakespeare monologues. Then you’ve got Will playing the piano, and I will never know all of his CV. I only found out yesterday, in rehearsals, that he was like the musical director of Jesus Christ Superstar with John Farnham. What a way to go, working with John only to end up with me. And Zenya, who’s the baby of the group who we love, is this incredible powerhouse of a singer.”
“I’ve always been a fan of being inside something, but making fun of it at the same time.”
Together they’ll play an entire boatload of folks in this satirical spoof of disaster movies in the vein of Flying High! “I’ve always been a fan of being inside something, but making fun of it at the same time,” Flanders says. “If you watch something dismissive of the source material, it just leaves you feeling gross, because you feel like the author thinks they’re above it. You have to be able to unlock the joy.”
And there is joy in the original ‘70s version of The Poseidon Adventure, a touchstone for this work. Starring Shelley Winters, Flanders was introduced to it about ten years ago. “Of course, I knew Shelley Winters as the woman from Pete’s Dragon and as Roseanne’s mother on Roseanne, so I wasn’t prepared for her as a former Olympic swimmer. And the glamour of that ship, even as it turns upside down, and how they must have spent so much money just getting that shot of everything falling when it went vertical.”
The budget for SS Metaphor may be a little more modest, but it’s still packed with big ideas, including a savvy critique of class. “What I loved about the idea of a cruise ship is that there is such an inbuilt caste system. And not just between guests and staff. Even within the staff, there’s a huge amount of difference if you’re a guest entertainer versus if you’re a cleaner. It’s a real horrible thing, when you think about what a ship runs on.”
Just in case you think that sounds heavy going, Flanders is a master, as he puts it, of “saying something serious in the stupidest way possible.” SS Metaphor hums along on covers, kicking off with a series of what he dubs, “the most cartoon idea of cruise ship music that’s nightmarish, get the party started stuff.” It then morphs into a bizarre tribute to one unlikely singer, plus there’s an original song penned by musically minded comedian Jude Perl. “It’s a big show-stopper that’s very glitzy.”
He can’t wait to be back on stage, come rain or hail. While lockdown was no fun for most of us, Flanders had a particularly tough run. “I was working on a show about my parents’ mortality, and my partner got diagnosed with cancer. Then my show got cancelled, and he got Covid while he was getting chemo and had no immune system. I couldn’t see him for a month and a half while he was in the infectious disease ward. So it was like a very full-on disaster movie.”
All the better to sage away the bad mojo by setting sail on the good ship SS Metaphor, he says. “I really relied on humour during that time and kept cracking dark jokes. It was the only way I knew to get through. And so I really wanted to give Melbourne an exciting, very funny show as a way to say, ‘We got through it. We did it’.”
SS Metaphor is at the Malthouse Outdoor Stage December 5-19. Tickets are available now.