First Love is the Revolution

CAST

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director
Georgina Naidu

Assistant Director
Maxwell Tassell 

Dramaturg
Lucy Rees

Fight Choreography
Colin Sneesby

Voice Coach
Amy Hume 

Intimacy Coordinator
Isabella Vadiveloo

Set Designer
Caitlin Johnston^

Costume Designer
Natalie Petrellils^

Lighting Designer
Elly Baigent*

Associate Set Designer
Ranko Hong

Assistant Production Manager
Isobelle De Livera*

Stage Manager
Annie Gleisner*

Assistant Stage Manager
Sophie Walter

Head of Staging
Charlie Craft*

Workshop Assistants
Tait Adams
Sara Bayley
Joshua Morris
Ingrid Muller
Saskia Permezel
Rachel Stone 

Senior Costumier
Moony Simpson*

Costume Manager
Alex Heien*

Costume Assistants
Xander Reichard
Taylor Amakia Tiauli 

Head Electrician
Heath Roberts

Deputy Head Electrician / Lighting Programmer and Operator
Jess Smart

^Second year Master of Production Design (Stage) student
*Third year Bachelor of Fine Arts (Design and Production) student 
+Third year Bachelor of Music (Interactive Composition) student

PROFESSIONAL STAFF

Production Coordinator
David Harrod

Stagecraft Project Coordinator
Alan Logan

Costume Supervisor
Elizabeth Maisey

Photographer
Drew Echberg

ACADEMIC STAFF

Academic Mentors
Peter Darby, Jess Keepence

VCA Production Academic Staff 
Anna Cordingley, Martyn Coutts, Jo Evans, Amanda Hitten, Lisa Mibus, Lisa Osborn, Matt Scott

VCA Design Academic Staff
Jo Briscoe, Emily Collett, Dale Ferguson, John Ford, Richard Roberts, Leon Salom, Christina Smith

PROGRAM NOTES

Burn it all down for love.

Basti is a sweet boy from a broken home - medicated, bullied, sleepwalking through life. Rdeca is curious, kind, bursting at the seams, and a fox. When they meet, they understand each other for real, like nobody has before.

First Love Is The Revolution by Rita Kalnejaishas been brought to life by a team of students and staff at VCA. Georgina Naidu steers us through the fantastical world Kalnejais has created, smashing together the domestic and the wild. Our team of costume, set, sound, and lighting designers have created a lush, rich space for you to enter. Feel each layer of the complex world they have made engulf you, as the graduating VCA acting students savagely open up the wounds of love and family.

Love has driven the process of this show - love for the text, love for the characters, for the work itself. First Love speaks to and honours the primacy of our emotional lives - how badly we need to connect. Underneath each character, whether they are kind, sleazy, naive, brave, or cruel, is a clawing desperation that is awesome to behold. This display of bestial humanity was only made possible through the collective empathy, time, and expertise of our whole team. We hope that, like us, you feel this show in your very nerve endings.

Who will rebel? Who will resist? Who will be the same after the revolution?

Will you?

- Maxwell Tassell, Assistant Director

We all know the balcony, the fire escape, the glimpse through the fish tank. The heroine’s lamentation of her only love sprung from her only hate. We know this story of star-crossed lovers, different and ill-fated. We know of their destiny. We thought we knew this story. Until now.

Falling in love for the first time can make you believe in destiny and magic, it can even make you rise up, against all odds, and revolt. Rita Kalnejais’ funny and touching play explores a world full of teen angst, roast chickens, talking moles and pink skies. This version of the story is about a boy and a fox. Basti is bullied and insecure, Rdeca is ready to hunt. Cochineal is trying her hardest, and Simon is trying to try. Families are complex, even in a den.

First love can be painful, euphoric, it can make you feel like a dream has pounced out of your head and is taking a turn around the town. Love can give hope, and right now, what we need is hope, something to hold onto to make us feel like everything is okay, that the world, that we are going to be okay. Making this play has been delightful and funny, with a cast and creatives that are hardworking and engrossed by this piece.

Basti and Rdeca refuse to let you judge them, they live in a tiny world of their own, populated by roast chicken and nice smells, a tiny planet, where, as Basti says nothing’s bigger than us. This version of the tale may feel foreign to some, but in every other way it is a universal story about overcoming the odds, otherness, and love- the most powerful thing we as humans (and foxes) have. Don’t fight it- it’s a revolution.

- Lucy Rees, Dramaturg

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