At this year’s Adelaide Festival, audiences were treated to a spectacular new production created right here in South Australia by Windmill Production Company. Glam Adelaide’s five-star review of Mama Does Derby stated: “Everything from the performances, to the set, to the perfectly timed sound effects have such an exquisite attention to detail that it’s hard to know where to begin gushing over this show.”
Mama Does Derby is a hilarious and heartfelt mother-daughter tale that smashes up against the exhilarating, rough and radical world of roller derby. It follows the story of sixteen year old Billie who is stuck, smack in the middle of the pressure of growing up and trying to hold it all together. To make matters worse, she and her mum have just moved to a regional town in the centre of nothing where they must create their own fun.
Mama Does Derby was co-created and written by the incredible Virginia Gay and co-created and directed by Clare Watson.
Clare is a multi-award-winning director and theatre-maker. In 2023 she was appointed Artistic Director of Windmill and her first work for the company, Hans and Gret, enjoyed a sell-out season at the Adelaide Festival.
Mama Does Derby is heading to Brisbane this week as part of the Brisbane Festival, and Glam Adelaide spoke with Clare about the show, its development and what it was like revisiting the work ahead of the Brisbane season.
“It’s been really nice to return to the show, really exciting. We get to work with new skaters, and for Brisbane, we have a new Mama. The wonderful Anna Lindner will be stepping into the role, which is so cool. Virginia Gay’s writing is so clear and strong, especially with the clarity of the characters, it just means that Anna has been able to step in and it feels like she’s always been in the role.”
We asked Clare how the creation of Mama Does Derby came about.
“It started a long time ago, in 2009. As a single mum with a little kid, I was taken by a friend to a roller derby for the first time. I’ve never really been one for sports and had never really gone to watch live sport, but I just found myself so invested and having the best time. Immediately I understood that there was something really theatrical about the sport of roller derby. There’s sort of a battle of personas in the makeup and costumes, and there’s a really clear relationship between the player and the audience. So right from the get-go of that experience I could tell there was a show waiting to be created.
“I then trained in roller derby myself and as a single parent with a young daughter, we moved to a country town. Roller Derby became the idea for the story of our lives. I’m a theatre maker and director but not a writer, but my daughter and I wanted to work with somebody who was a writer. We approached Virginia Gay, with whom we are friends, and she was excited to be involved. She brought such a different and incredible perspective to the work as it developed.”
Clare shared with Glam Adelaide the changes the show has gone through each time it has been performed.
“After our initial season in Sydney we did make several adjustments. You learn so much about a show after it’s been in front of an audience. You discover what’s landing, the rhythms of the work and things like that. We felt like we learned a lot and then made a number of edits and adjustments into the Adelaide season. Adelaide felt like a really mature, secure, crisp version of the work which we were very happy with. We didn’t intend to make a lot of changes for Brisbane, however, we are playing the work at the Powerhouse and, unlike in Sydney and Adelaide, we’re not going to have the audience on both sides of the stage area. We’re no longer presenting in traverse, we’re only presenting on one side and using the actual theatre bank seating. So it means that we’ve made a number of blocking adjustments to suit that.”
Mama Does Derby is a brilliant theatrical experience that mixes together live theatre, roller derby and a high-energy punk score.
“One of the many things I love about Mama Does Derby is how it incorporates great theatre, roller derby and punk music to create a brilliant piece of theatre. Our musical director is an absolute genius with how they put together the band and the music choices. It’s a very clever piece of theatre how it all works together.”
South Australia has a rich history of creating brilliant works that are performed across Australia and even the world.
“I’s totally thrilling to think that we’ve got this extraordinarily talented team of South Australians who are giving audiences a spectacular experience across the country. We get to work with local skaters wherever we perform as well. I think it’s a really lovely show where you don’t just drop in and present and leave. We’re actually meeting and working with people locally. It becomes a family wherever we perform.”
Mama Does Derby is performing as part of the Brisbane Festival from 3 – 5 September. We at Glam Adelaide cannot wait to see what is next for this home-grown piece of theatre.
To stay up-to-date with the show visit: https://www.windmill.org.au/show/mama-does-derby/
Photo credit: Bri Hammond
