Hunters and collectors: Musical explores origins of materialism
Do our modern age issues have stone age solutions?
That’s the intriguing synopsis of the latest work by Hamilton’s answer to Cole Porter or Stephen Sondheim, a fanciful delve into the origins of materialism and the phenomena of “Keeping up with the Joneses”.
Chris Williams’ The Rug is set in the early ice age - a time when humans were becoming domesticated, communicating, building families and accumulating possessions. The men would go out hunting and bring home the spoils to their tribe. One day one of the brave hunters takes down a sabre-tooth tiger, skins it, and proudly brings home a beautiful rug - a move that inadvertently sparks a rivalry with the neighbours, who are now determined to get themselves an even more spectacular rug.
The origins of the production started with a random conversation in a local cafe, Williams reveals.
“We were talking about social media, and how we publicise the best versions of ourselves there - all these perfectly made meals and perfect lives - and how that would fuel a ‘grass is greener’ mindset that many of us have.
“I came up with an anecdote about how back in the cave people days they would have got themselves an animal skin rug and the people in the neighbouring cave would have wanted to get one too.
“It occurred to me ‘Maybe I should write a show about that’.”
With the seed of the idea having taken root, Williams suddenly became much more observant when it came to such conversations, acquisitions and boastful posts on Facebook.
“We always view other people as being better off. But are they really? I also started to think about the trade-off, the flip-side as well. If a tiger has been killed to make a rug, maybe there is another tiger, its partner, that’s been left behind, heartbroken and wanting revenge?
“I wanted to get people thinking about what are really the most valuable things in their lives. Are they material things or non-material things?
“Another aspect is the accoutrements that people get to enhance their lives. There’s one character in the show who is running around and selling stuff to people.” Williams knows a bit about selling stuff to people. He runs Hamilton-based advertising and marketing agency King St, which he has led since 1999.
After conjuring the tale - including 15 musical numbers - he began enlisting his cast and crew.
Taking the director’s chair is Joshi Reinhold - “an up-and-comer who is really enthusiastic and keen to make his mark in theatre. I love how he has really embraced the story.”
Likewise, the six cast members had been recruited from Wintec’s music and performing arts programme.
“I have been really impressed with how super talented they all are.”
Mark Dennison, who has been involved in many productions in Australia, was on musical director duties, and Chris Martin had been enlisted as designer
- a role which has included creating the striking advertising being used to promote The Rug. The show is the third musical Williams has written, but the first, State Highway 48, is getting some fresh attention more than nine years after it was first staged at the then-hamilton Gardens Arts Festival.
That show will be showcased in New York later this year after Williams was invited to participate in a mentoring programme run by Broadway producer Ken Davenport.
But first he needs to get the story that pre-dates the invention of the wheel in front of audiences.
“The venue, The Meteor, is going to be ideal for staging The Rug. It’s going to feel quite immersive. When you walk into that performance space it’s all dark and you do feel like you are walking into some kind of cave.
■ The Rug will be staged at the Meteor Theatre from May 17 to 25.