Their last show was a kinky dinner party. Naturally, they're taking on Chekhov next
Anything can happen at a Pony Cam show – that's part of their unorthodox charm – though the performers might need to up power tools if they want to outdo Burnout Paradise, the Fringe hit that saw them take to treadmills and enlist audiences to help multitask through a list of increasingly outrageous chores (including submitting an arts grant application) against the clock.
Slapstick scenes proliferated in that one; on one occasion in Edinburgh, a man leapt out of the audience to pash a performer on the lips, in a frenetic attempt to complete the final mission with only seconds remaining on the timer. The show's chaotic scenario demanded presence from the performers too.
'You can be on autopilot,' says Claire Bird of Burnout Paradise, 'but at the end of the day, you can't autopilot your relationship with an audience that's shaving your leg and feeding you bananas at the same time. You just can't do that. You've got to be present.'
An emphasis on shared presence is baked into the company's DNA. That's unsurprising, given it was founded not long before the COVID pandemic, when the five ensemble members – Bird, Ava Campbell, William Strom, Dominic Weintraub and Hugo Williams – were at the Victorian College of the Arts together in 2019.
Pony Cam's unorthodox practice was shaped by the young artists' capacity to turn the extraordinary misfortune of Melbourne's extended theatre shutdowns into a creative opportunity.
'People talk about this show like it's our 'mainstage debut',' says Weintraub uncertainly, 'but in fact, it's the first show we've made specifically for a theatre … largely because for the first few years, theatres were closed.
'We spent two years watching online art that couldn't speak to its audience, that couldn't relate to its audience,' he continues. 'We developed a real desire to connect with people, and for that connection to be the very core of everything we make.'
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Nighttime Economy Minister John Graham said the funding would help collectives generate "self-sustaining" initiatives to boost local offerings and promote the visitor economy. Venue owners in Newcastle's Midtown precinct between Steel and Union streets say the injection of almost $800,000 in state grants will help launch more vibrant events like the West Best Bloc Fest to boost the city's nightlife. The state will funnel around $770,000 into three inner city venue collectives, including Midtown - a group of around seven members; the East End group, and the villages of the Throsby basin, as well as the Shoaly Collective at Shoal Bay, to promote inter-venue cooperation. It represents the third round of the state government's Uptown grants program, and the first time that regional venues outside of Sydney have been beneficiaries. The Hunter's slice comes from a pie of some $5.5 million in state funding aimed at growing a 24-hour hospitality and entertainment economy. 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