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Why I Made is a fortnightly feature in which artists and writers share with listener.co.nz the behind-the-scenes stories of their creations. Here, Freya Silas Finch talks about their solo theatre show A Slow Burlesque.
You couldn’t blame Freya Silas Finch for thinking they’d landed in an episode of Home & Away when, aged nine, their family swapped winter in Sheffield for a new home at Mt Maunganui in summer.
What was meant to be a year-long sojourn turned into a permanent move and Finch, now 28, is a performer and emerging film-maker with a string of theatre credits to their name and a burgeoning “trophy cabinet”.
In the last two years, they’ve received an Arts Foundation Springboard Award, given to kickstart the careers of promising artists, and been part of Dame Jane Campion’s pop-up film school, A Wave in the Ocean.
Finch, a queer and trans artist, is now working on their first feature film, but first there’s a solo show to perform. A Slow Burlesque opens in Auckland next week.
Freya Silas Finch, why did you make A Slow Burlesque?
For me, it was a way to kind of have a lot of fun playing a lot of different roles, to challenge myself to play lots of these different characters. I just wanted to make something that felt playful and joyful that explored gender and gender as a performance. In a lot of ways, it’s about me and my experience of navigating the world.
Gender politics is exploding and there’s a lot of fear out there. My show is a liberating, playful spin on what it can be like to experiment with your gender. Whether you’re trans or cisgender, this show allows you to feel hopeful and joyful. Playing with gender has always existed. It’s nothing to be scared about.
Why do you think people are scared of playing with gender?
I think we like to feel that we’re in control as humans. When people perceive that there’s a rule or a way of doing things that’s been there for a long time, and you’re proposing a change to that, it freaks people out. We get used to a certain level of “safety”, of certainty but, of course, that’s not how life works. Everything’s changing constantly and we’re not as in control as we think we are.
What about the role of gender in your life, how has that played out?
It’s always been quite a fluid thing. Ever since I was a kid – and I wouldn’t necessarily have had the language to describe that as a child - but I always felt I could kind of move, crossing between all kinds of different genders or expressions of gender. I would say in more recent years, it’s become a very playful part of my life or expression of myself. That’s sort of what the show is about.
And you think the world could benefit right now from a show that’s a little bit more playful and joyful?
I think we’re at a very challenging moment and there’s a lot of difficult stuff going on in the world right now. When it comes to issues around identity – gender identity – there can sometimes be pressure to tell a certain kind of story, one that involves a lot of pain. All of that is real and I have my own experiences of it, but that’s not the only story, or all there is to the story. There can be playfulness, so that’s what I wanted to focus on.
Have you looked into much of the history surrounding gender?
The work is called A Slow Burlesque partly because there are some very old examples of burlesque as it was becoming a form, of some real, wild and experimental stuff going on. It’s been interesting to think about the sort of early drag and performance artwork from the 1920s, 30s and 40s.
Somebody gave me a book called Butch Heroes [by Ria Brodell] that has lots of examples of gender queer, non-binary, or masc-presenting [masculine presenting] lesbian women from throughout history. It’s fascinating.
So, how are you putting A Slow Burlesque together?
During the years, I’ve had various ideas and jotted things down in notebooks, written little pieces – I guess like sketches – and then working with Silo Theatre [Finch was a Silo artistic associate in 2022 and 23] in some workshops to stand it all up on its feet, taking the ideas from my head – the scribblings in my notebooks – to something I’ve doing live….
A Slow Burlesque director Jo Randerson joins the conversation.
JR: I’m going to lean in here, because it’s hard to explain what’s so great about your show when you’re being asked. Freya is a funny and generous performer and there’s a lot of joy on stage, a lot of really great comedy plus it’s very visual. It’s not like stand-up comedy where there’s a performer and a microphone, but there’s all this costume work, wig changes and it’s extremely visual.
How does Silo Theatre fit into it all?
FSF: I asked Sophie [Roberts, Silo’s artistic director] for a support letter to get some funding from Creative New Zealand to do a residency in New York. Then I got a phone call from her asking if I wanted to make the show with Silo, which was totally amazing and unexpected. Sophie came on board as the dramaturge and they’ve supported the show’s creation through several development workshops.
Did you get your CNZ funding for the residency?
No, but I went anyway to this amazing place called The Mothership in 2022, but I’d been to New York for two weeks in 2020. I was there during peak Covid without realising it because I wasn’t on my phone, I wasn’t on social media. I was just trying to cut off and have time exploring. I was sitting in a bar talking to an old guy who was a musician. He said, “It’s such a shame you’re here at this time, when everything is closing because of the pandemic…” I was at the epicentre of Covid and I didn’t ever realise it! I got on a flight home within 48 hours.
A Slow Burlesque is on from October 3 – 19 at Auckland’s Basement Theatre.
