I was about to embark on the marathon that is the Adelaide Fringe Festival; which is not an ordinary marathon… It does not involve any running, swimming or cycling. Instead it consists of four weeks of solid performing, flyering, partying, performing, flyering, drinking and more drinking. (I’d like to see Tony Abbot try THAT marathon! No actually, I’ve seen enough of him already)
A very important part of surviving this marathon is having somewhere half decent to stay. But the mission is finding accommodation has started to become more challenging for me in recent years as I am no longer in my early twenties and happy go lucky enough to share a room with 6 other randoms and possibly bed bugs. And there was not way I could afford a REAL flat – like the ones promoted for short term stays by Real Estate Agents advertising apartments that could only be afforded by artists if they formed the world’s largest spoon chain in the living room!
What was I going to do??!!! I revisited the Adelaide Fringe Festival website for the 100th time thinking; “It’s only two months away…surely there will be NOTHING on the accommodation billboard!”… when I saw an add for an opportunity that was too good to be true:
A local couple, working in the arts, had decided to turn their study into a bedroom by literally putting in a mattress of the floor, curtains over the windows and a door over the hole in the wall. The rent was miniscule …so what was the catch??
I rang the number and asked to talk to Jenn and she answered… She seemed normal. She seemed lovely! Then she said,“The room is still available, come stay!”.
So next thing you know I am on the plane headed 1500 km SW from Brisbane and the anxiety fuelled questions start to naw at my brain and the minature bottle of wine I’ve consumed only fuels them, “What will their place be like? What will they be like? What if they are strange??? What if I end up decomposing in a tank in their back yard!!! Why did I spend $7.50 on the world’s smallest bottle of wine!!!!???”
I arrive in the city of churches not a church in sight. It is 11 o’clock…. It is late.. will they be up? DON’T BE STUPID- THEY WORK IN THE ARTS!!!!
I get in and Jenn opens the door- she is only just home from work and throwing off her shoes. Her boyfriend is cracking a beer- he is a photographer still at uni and currently on holidays and hence always opening some sort of alcoholic beverage… my head screams, “Swingers!!!”
Sorry to disappoint the more adventurous readers but they didn’t turn out to be murderers or sexual deviants (with the exception of their dog, Tiger, who DID occasionally tried to root me or my matress).
So what was it like living with two total strangers for 5 weeks? Well after about 5 minutes we discovered we had so much in common that it felt like we had always known each other.
They are two of the best people I have met in my life. Their cool disposition, go with the flow attitude, unconditional support for my show way before they had even seen it- MY GOD! You can’t put a price on that kind of in kind support!!!
And now that I am back in Brisbane, we are still helping each other with networking and our companies are already materialising cultural exchange on a grass roots level. I believe this is truly the future for independent theatre companies!
Liz runs Brisbane based theatre company, deBASE productions. She premiered her solo show SKITCH TEASE at the Adelaide Fringe earlier this year and recently performed a return season in Adelaide at the Cabaret Fringe Festival.
Jenn runs Adelaide based theatre company, “vitalstatistix” and also independently produced PICKLED at the 2010 Adelaide Fringe.
If you are interested in renting out a room or billeting an artist- express your interest to your local festival- no matter how big or small it is.
