{"id":1237,"date":"2022-10-09T16:34:48","date_gmt":"2022-10-09T16:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michaelrossplaywright.com\/?p=1237"},"modified":"2022-10-09T16:49:07","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T16:49:07","slug":"the-shy-manifesto-at-the-melbourne-fringe-20-23rd-october-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michaelrossplaywright.com\/?p=1237","title":{"rendered":"The Shy Manifesto at The Melbourne Fringe, 20 – 23rd October 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The director Gavin Roach is putting on The Shy Manifesto starring Jake Matricardi at the Victorian Pride Centre – Theatrette, Melbourne, Australia 20 – 23rd October 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/melbournefringe.com.au\/event\/the-shy-manifesto-by-michael-ross<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some publicity stills for the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jake Matricardi at Callum, Directed by Gavin Roach.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Here’s a review of the February 2022 performance from the UMSU website:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/umsu.unimelb.edu.au\/news\/article\/7797\/Review-The-Shy-Manifesto\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by Michael Ross and directed by Gavin Roach, the Australian premiere of The Shy Manifesto <\/em>opened in Melbourne as part of Midsumma Festival. British playwright Michael Ross has enjoyed a string of accolades in the UK, including being shortlisted for the 2014 Off West End Adopt a Playwright Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon walking in to The Bluestone Church Arts Space in Footscray, I was struck by the size of the performance space. Situated in a relatively unassuming church hall, there were no elaborate sets or backdrops to give any indication as to how The Shy Manifesto <\/em>would unfold. The only sign that this was indeed a play and not, say, a council meeting, were two lights on trusses at the back, throwing a warm shade of pink over the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In defiance of its venue\u2019s size, The Shy Manifesto <\/em>greeted a surprisingly robust audience, and for good reason. The show is presented as a solo monologue, and Jake Matricardi delivers an utterly arresting performance. He plays Callum, a proudly shy person, who rebels against the conscriptions of a loud, extroverted society. Despite how vehemently Callum insists that other people shun him, we as the audience can\u2019t help but find him likeable. Matricardi is a charismatic actor, armed with Ross\u2019 beautiful turn of phrase and with an air of Hugh Grant about him, his performance makes Callum a charming character, for all his quirks and foibles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Callum is dry-humoured, eloquent, and articulate; over the course of the hour, Matricardi didn\u2019t stumble over a single word. Callum recounts amusing anecdotes about the times various people tried forcing him out of his skin, including his aunt Libby the \u201cruthless character assassin\u201d, and his Drama teacher Ms Cherry, who tried to convince him that \u201call the best actors were shy people\u201d. Callum derides these attempts, unable to believe or accept that people could be interested in having him around. The self-referential irony interwoven throughout the play enables us to clearly see the cracks in Callum\u2019s shy sheathing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Callum takes great pride in his social exclusion, revels in his anonymity, and gathers his self-professed shyness around him like armour. The arrival of a new kid at school, David \u2018Gilby\u2019 Gilbert, threatens shake the very foundations of Callum\u2019s existence as a \u201cfundamentalist shy separatist\u201d. While his entire year level dismisses him, Gilby, to his horror, is nice <\/em>to him. Why would this boy be nice to him, Callum frets. Matricardi deftly navigates the emotional range of a shy, overwhelmed teenage boy grappling with his sexuality, as we as an audience see exactly where Callum\u2019s self-imposed shy lifestyle leads. His preoccupation with Gilby leads to a chain of events which culminates in Callum revealing more about himself than he ever wanted to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ross, Matricardi, and director Gavin Roach masterfully manipulate complex themes surrounding identity, coming of age, and coming out, in a perfect little gem of a production. As an audience, we can see that shyness, in Callum\u2019s case, is not so much a choice as a defence strategy, a manifestation of his anxiety. Callum grapples with coming to terms with himself and his identity. The play culminates in a bittersweet ending, as what began as a manifesto is gradually revealed to be more of a self-imposed exile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The director Gavin Roach is putting on The Shy Manifesto starring Jake Matricardi at the Victorian Pride Centre – Theatrette, Melbourne, Australia 20 – 23rd October 2022. https:\/\/melbournefringe.com.au\/event\/the-shy-manifesto-by-michael-ross Here are some publicity stills for the event. Here’s a review of the February 2022 performance from the UMSU website: https:\/\/umsu.unimelb.edu.au\/news\/article\/7797\/Review-The-Shy-Manifesto\/ Written by Michael Ross and directed … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Shy Manifesto at The Melbourne Fringe, 20 – 23rd October 2022”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,27],"tags":[53,54,55,23,26,25],"class_list":["post-1237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-melbourne-fringe","category-the-shy-manifesto","tag-gavin-roach","tag-jake-matricardi","tag-melbourne-fringe","tag-michael-ross","tag-michael-ross-playwright","tag-the-shy-manifesto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelrossplaywright.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelrossplaywright.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelrossplaywright.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelrossplaywright.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelrossplaywright.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1237"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelrossplaywright.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1248,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelrossplaywright.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions\/1248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelrossplaywright.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelrossplaywright.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaelrossplaywright.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}