An unexpected venue in Geelong is presenting a modern gothic cabaret about grief this weekend

Fresh from Adelaide Fringe, performance artist Delia Olam deciphers grief and loss in her latest solo cabaret work.

With the tagline, “A modern gothic tales of grief, tenderness, and myth-making after loss”, Olam’s new stage show is a tearjerker. The South Australian artist and award-winning cabaret performer, musician, and theatre maker is bringing her multi-sensory exploration of life after loss, the inevitable end, and the tumultuous treading of grief waters to Geelong audiences. Through a 60 minute performance titled Swedish Death Cleaning Vs EVERYTHING (the shed), Olam cleans out the physical and metaphorical shed following her own personal loss.

A space that knows the movements of grief all too well is Kings Funerals, the unconventional yet incredibly appropriate venue hosts for this insightful showcase. Swedish Death Cleaning Vs EVERYTHING (the shed) will take place in Kings Chapel on Bellarine Highway, this Saturday 25 October from 6.30pm.

Swedish Death Cleaning Vs EVERYTHING (the shed)

When: Saturday 25 October, 6.30pm

Where: Kings Chapel, 130 Bellarine Highway Newcomb

Tickets: General Admission, $25, Concession, $20. Purchase here

Keep up to date with all things arts, exhibitions and stage here.

 

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In what The List describes as “A warm hug of a show,” where “the room transforms into a space where grief is shared, love lingers in the details, and strangers connect over collective loss”, Swedish Death Cleaning Vs EVERYTHING (the shed) takes cues from the Swedish concept of post-death clearing out of possessions, a space that Olam navigated herself only recently.

“It was inspired by my personal experience these past 3 years since my mum suddenly passed away – sorting through, on the one hand a literal shed FULL with a life’s worth of special interests and curiosities, and – on the other hand a more metaphorical ‘shed’ of memories and “every story ever told about my mum” – including the ones she told about herself (via diaries from different decades of her life) and trying to make sense of and reconcile how different people experienced her so wildly differently from each other and she experienced herself another way again entirely,” Olam explains.

“It became a kind of modern gothic tale in which it appears that I am endlessly sorting boxes yet the shed is still (and always will be) full.. and in which the strange privilege of choosing what my mum’s legacy will be, is shared with the audience (‘cast’ upon entry into the theatrical space, as “friends” who have come over to “help with sorting the shed”). The choosing is done via the radical ethos/device of Swedish Death Cleaning (“select only what is most essential or most meaningful, and let the rest move on”) and the use of my mum’s infinite collection of miniatures – used here as keepers of story.”

Incorporating spoken word poetry, live music through guitar and dulcimer – both original and popular if you were a teen in the 70’s, and a closed gap between performer and audience, Swedish Death Cleaning Vs EVERYTHING (the shed) is tailored to anyone between 9 and 99 who is curious about the questions that arise from loss, and the process of myth -making thereafter. Audience members who have experienced their own grief will resonate with the material and the tales told of navigating the five steps of grief, particular where a loss is of a parent or grandparent where arranging affairs is part of the process.

Touching on themes of not only grief, loss and myth-making but also going deep into generational trauma stemming from undiagnosed neurodivergence, its relation to identity and “the stories a person believes of themselves”,  Swedish Death Cleaning Vs EVERYTHING (the shed) aims to unpack this mentally, following the overwhelming duty of physical unpacking the shed.

“It’s a show that inspires tenderness and a desire to sit and yap afterwards and share and reflect ; a show that “makes space” for grief, and feeling it, which – as it turns out – is a far too rare thing; and it does so in a way that is far less scary than most of us may think,” Olam says.

“It’s one of those shows that manages to be incredibly personal about an experience that is truly universal and becomes a beautiful invitation to reflect upon and to cherish – life!”

Expect to be moved – maybe even to tears – as Olam cleans out.

Tickets to see Swedish Death Cleaning Vs EVERYTHING (the shed) at Kings Chapel are on sale now and can be picked up here for $25 general admission, and $20 concession.