Mandurah youth performance company Riptide are madly rehearsing as they prepare to take their new show ‘Blue Portal Road’ to the stage at the end of the month.
Created and directed entirely by Peel youth, the new performance “delves into visceral new worlds”.
The cast will perform the show at the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre on January 29 and 30 before returning to The Blue Room Theatre Summer Nights for their second consecutive year from January 31 – February 2.
The show explores the feelings inside our own heads and all the odd things found there in a blend of surrealism and science fiction.
We’re looking at alternate dimensions and how that ties in with feelings of loneliness and being lost in your own mind – it’s really great to play with.
- Clea Purkis
Bound to make you feel uneasy, excited and apprehensive all at the same time, it’s a performance that draws you into a new world of both reality and imagination where things just “don’t seem quite right”.
Ensemble member and Riptide artistic associate Clea Purkis makes her directorial debut with ‘Blue Portal Road’ under the guidance of Riptide artistic director Katt Osborne.
Purkis said their inter-dimensional exploration of ‘stuck-ness’ was a theory she found particularly interesting.
“I have this total fascination with science fiction as a genre, and the ways that it blends in with real life,” she said.
“We’re looking at alternate dimensions and how that ties in with feelings of loneliness and being lost in your own mind – it’s really great to play with.
“The feeling coming into this show is really powerful.
“Despite the ‘strangeness’ of the show, honest emotion keeps coming out of the rehearsals.”
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The show has also been devised under movement mentorship from experienced freelance contemporary dancer Bernadette Lewis.
Purkis said it was “exciting” to have an expert on board.
“She has a lot of expertise to share and it’s great to have the show reinforced with her skills,” she said.
Ensemble member and last year’s Blue Room Theatre Summer Nights director Ruby Liddelow said she is thoroughly enjoying the creative process for Blue Portal Road.
“The theme of alternate dimensions in the show is really great as the possibilities are endless,” she said.
“There’s a real sense of freedom in the rehearsal room and it’s so great to explore new ways of moving then turn that into a cohesive whole.
“It’s liberating.”
‘Blue Portal Road’ will perform at the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre on January 29 and 30 at 7.30pm. For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit the MPAC website.
