How do you explain the world?

Creation Creation is a comedy for young and old about life’s most burning questions based on real-life interviews with people aged 8 – 102. We've pulled together some of those interviews to show the myriad ways in which we all interpret the mysteries of life.

Portraits: Jessica Clark Photography

An introduction from Windmill Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Rosemary Myers

Windmill usually makes fictitious and often quite fantastical shows, so it’s been quite a thrill to step into the world of documentary theatre. We began developing this project in Renmark, a regional town in South Australia, over five years ago. Alongside sleeping on a houseboat and winning the RSL meat raffle, we interviewed community members and played with Jonathon and Fleur to explore the ways we could combine interview-based text with live performance art. We discovered there was an exciting show to be made. We then invited documentary theatre maker Roslyn Oades to conduct the community interviews and create the audio script for the show. 

Creation Creation challenged us to stage the answers to the big questions our interviewees have shared with us. Jonathon and Fleur use any (and many) means at their disposal to embody the answers and the act of doing this becomes both hysterical and, at times, profound. At its core, this show is a celebration of the intelligence, enquiry and diversity that makes our community so amazing. It is also a celebration of creative ingenuity injected with a fair dose of Jonathon and Fleur charisma.

The development of Creation Creation in 2019 coincided with the children’s climate rallies happening around the world. For me, one of the most powerful moments in this play is when the young people express their concerns about the future of our planet. It’s a sobering but also hopeful moment that touched everyone in our rehearsal room.

We are truly grateful to the people who participated in the interviews for this work. It’s been a privilege to work with their stories, ideas and voices throughout the making of Creation Creation. 

The top 5 things I learned making Creation Creation

  1. The creation of the universe took billions and billions of years and the ideas about it about how it all began are constantly evolving.
  2. Babies in the womb hear lots of the outside world and respond to music.
  3. An old bike can be the secret to happiness.
  4. Aliens may or may not be partial to a techno rave. 
  5. When something is sucked into a black hole the gravity is so intense it becomes spaghettified (made into a long thin strand).

Is there other life in the universe?
Jared and Tilly Thomas

I've seen Min Min lights. They're kind of like these balls of light, that kind of float across the landscape... My dad and other uncles and aunties have told me about the Min Min lights. Stories about stockmen and stuff, following them and being lost, out in the bush... With friends on a school camp when we were in the Southern Flinders. Near Nhawiranha, or Devil's Peak. We were just kind of mucking about and then we're like, Wow, what's that? We could just see this light, just floating around and, just moving, abnormally... And I'm sayin' to my friends, Oh, don't follow the light. It's the Min Min. We'll get lost. Don't follow it… Then it just took off...

How did the world begin?
Bronte Nichols

Scientists think, that about 13 billion years ago, there was what we call the Big Bang... And that was when there was sufficient matter in the universe to actually explode. 

What will life be like on Earth in 1000 years?
Muzafar Ali

I see a bleak picture of Earth in 1000 years. We are not doing justice with this planet. We are fighting and we are greedy. We are invading jungles, destryoing our forests. Yeah, the world would be a barren place. Probably no human beings, just some cockroaches, because they're soooo resilient…

How did the world begin?
Jun Huai

From the Chinese side, the creator will be a giant named Pangu. Pangu used to live in this mixture of chaos-air. In, in an egg. It looks like a chicken egg. Pangu used to sleep in this egg for over 18000 years. One day he opened his eyes And he's not comfortable. He, he wants to get out and he used a big axe to cut open the egg... And it creates the earth and the sky...

How did the world begin?
Caleb Wood

Umm… I'm of Greek lineage. Prometheus was a Titan and Zeus is the king of the gods in Greek mythology… Basically, Zeus got bored and tasked Prometheus with using clay to make living creatures. And he did that. He made little human figures… Put them in the sun... Made them all different colours... There was a theory that one was blue…

What happens when you die?
Noel Wilson

Did I die? Certainly, I was near-death. Every now and then I would be conscious of my friends. I can remember seeing them standing there. But there was always twice as many of them. When I saw the people there, I also saw a shadow-person, almost like a ghost, behind them. They were definitely of – in a different state. There was the ordinary person and there was this other one behind them.

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