OBSERVER: A Chance to Address the Amish Rumours
Stephanie Hare’s A Chance to Address the Amish Rumours launches with the sound of a cow mooing.
Hare then ruminates on a childhood spent in the backcountry boondocks of rural Tassie, Jackeys Marsh, to be exact, which had a population of 40 in the last census.
Embracing an alternative lifestyle, Stephanie’s mother left Melbourne to pursue life off the grid, building the family an architecturally ambiguous house made from scrounged firewood and stone.
Stephanie’s father would regularly remove himself from the family home, retreating to a literal man cave in the mountains for weeks on end.
Hare suspects there may have been an ulterior motive. Phone reception was better at the top of the mountain.
Strange neighbours, encounters with an Earth Mother ship, white guys in dreadlocks, Stephanie assumed all were hallmarks of a typical childhood until she got to Melbourne and discovered fridges.
After all, despite salmonella scares from mouldy hoummos, who needs a fridge when you can pour milk straight from a goat.
Dropping out of uni, Hare set out on an adventure and moved to Scotland.
Homesick, Hare considered getting deported, but transportation is not as easy as it used to be.
Back in Melbourne with her new Scottish boyfriend, Hare embraces adulthood and makes grown-up decisions like what to name the Wi-Fi.
Hare perfects a nervy schtick, delivering quirky, slow-burning, and offbeat comedy.
With a knack for storytelling, Hare serves a comedy monologue that gently builds and reads as afterthoughts, like mind dawdles along the highway of her life so far.
Performance Details: Until April 6 at 7pm
Venue: The Butterfly Club, 5 Carson Place, Little Collins St., Melbourne
Bookings: thebutterflyclub.com
Review by Kathryn Keeble