Offering a sensory experience for audiences, employing scent to capture the play’s delicate interpretation of grief, decay and blooming, Pot Kettle Black Productions presents Recollection at fortyfivedownstairs from 26 June 2024.
This surprising new play by Georgia Ketels captures the journey of a mother, attempting to piece her late teenage daughter’s life into a perfume.
The play takes place in two timelines: in the recent past, Molly, a teenage girl, falls in love with Jenna, a new school friend. Molly’s mother, Olivia, is troubled by Jenna’s recklessness and tendency towards self-destruction. A relationship between the two girls blooms in secret.
In the present, Molly has died without warning, and Olivia is left to pick up the pieces of her life, seeking to remember Molly by her smell. Olivia must come to terms with who her daughter really was, and who she was going to become, to capture her volatile essence. She must take Jenna as part of Molly.
At key moments, custom-designed scents by Erin Adams of Smell Art will be incorporated into the theatrical space, bridging the abstract nature of grief with the tangible aroma of memories, as the smells of fruits, spices, leather, dirt and skin synthesise into the full picture of a person.
“I wanted to explore how a mother thinks her daughter smells – all the gum leaves, tea and oranges, none of the sweat, musk and smoke,” said playwright, Georgia Ketels. “As much as you try to ignore the disagreeable elements of a person you love, as soon as you actually remove them, they’re not the person you loved anymore.”
Directed by Cathy Hunt (7 Captiva Road, Chapel off Chapel, Love/Chamberlain, Theatre Works), Recollection features Eve Morey, Molly Holohan, Mish Keating and Ravenna Bouckaert.
“This play offers a new approach to the queer coming of age story and generational struggle – our cast and creatives are all women or non-binary, and most of us identify as queer, so this story resonates strongly; it’s important to us,” says director Cathy Hunt. “Molly and Jenna’s unexpected first love is authentic and real, funny and delicately genuine.”
“Recollection works in the spirit of historic mourning rituals like hair jewellery and memento mori, recalling past craft techniques to hold onto grief by literally wearing part of the lost loved person.”
“These ritual observances, often led by women, influence the design of Recollection, which is futuristic in concept but nostalgic in form. We are delving into the rich linked processes of decay, regeneration, and the puzzle of loss,” said Hunt.
Director: Cathy Hunt | Featuring: Eve Morey, Molly Holohan, Mish Keating, Ravenna Bouckaert | Set & Costume Designer: Eloise Kent | Scent Artist: Erin Adams | Sound Designer: Jess Keeffe | Lighting Designer: Emma Lockhart Wilson | Assistant Director: Chelsea Jones | Sound & Lighting Technician: Lara Gabor | Stage Manager: Sophie Walter | Intimacy Consultant: Isabella Vadiveloo | Playwright: Georgia Ketels
Recollection
fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Season: : 27 June – 7 July 2024 (preview: 26 June)
Bookings: www.fortyfivedownstairs.com
For more information, visit: www.potkettleblack.productions for details.
Image: Eve Morey, Molly Holohan, Mish Keating and Ravenna Bouckaert star in Recollection – photo by Georgia Ketels