Behind The Scenes: Matcho Cassidy & Valerie Berry
As we write this, we’re at the endpoint of State Theatre Company South Australia and ActNow Theatre’s DECAMERON 2.0 . Every week 10 writers have been set the challenge to respond to prompts that have evoked responses around love, deception, desire, fate and sacrifice. Of these 10 writers, 2 are pulled from ActNow Theatre’s community streams: Queer 2.0 and Theatre of the Global Majority.
We want to take you back to the very first episode of DECAMERON 2.0 and have a look at the journey behind the character ‘Tita’ - written by Matcho Cassidy and performed by Valerie Berry.
Image Description: A title card. A black screen with the words TITA (AUNTIE) in white.
Introduce yourself and tell us how you got involved with DECAMERON 2.0?
Matcho: My name is Matcho Cassidy and I am a part of the Theatre of the Global Majority working on DECAMERON 2.0. I got involved through the Theatre of the Global Majority workshops. I’m a consistent member there and there was a delegation of responsibility on who wants to write the first week and I was like “yeah, okay I’ll do it.” I’m good at writing, so bring me something I can sink my hands into.
Valerie: So I’m Valerie Berry, an actor and a theatre maker. Yasmin [Gurreeboo] kind of gave me a heads up that I might be in a pool of actors so I kind of knew about it before it sort of got announced… But I guess the connection is through the Theatre of the Global Majority. Yeah, it's just been wonderful. I think every one of us [in the workshop] just felt really brave that this was a platform to try our hand in writing, especially monologues. So that was quite exciting for a lot of us.
And what was the prompt you responded to?
Matcho: The subject was sacrifice… “Those who make sacrifices”. I thought about my mum, about what kind of work she does. I thought about why the people that were just stressing out online on social media and just saying all kinds of stuff… I combined those things together and then I made this character that was frustrated with everything that’s happened. Like most of us would have felt but still in this confused state of like “why can't we just go back to work? Why can't we just live our lives? Why is this stopping us?”
Did you have an idea before the prompt?
Matcho: I had an idea pre-theme… Yeah. I had this idea because I knew it was gonna be about something… The DECAMERON is about a group of people that are surviving the black plague and around the campfire telling stories. I knew enough that I could write something beforehand. I tried to and it was more along the lines of a structure to kind of feel off of the suffering and the confusion of being within the COVID-19 pandemic. It was mostly a structure of repetitive-y and a gradual build from that… And I wasn't sure if I was able to use it once I got the theme, but once I did, I started writing and I was able to fit in the sacrifice theme of the character and then pull it together with the sort of repetitive monologue of structure that I had developed.
Image Description: A black and white photo. Matcho is on the right hand side of the photo, laughing. Behind him and out of focus is Valerie, also laughing. Photographer: Alex Kwong.
So usually, and correct me if I'm wrong, you tend to write like poetry and spoken word. What was it like writing a monologue?
It was challenging. It was challenging for two reasons. One: I was like okay cool this will bring me out of the box and I can just go into storytelling and I can go into the whole idea of whether it's like writing a monologue for a character in a film… I'll take up that challenge at the same time. When I write, I automatically go into a rhythm and cadence and it's very… Sometimes it sort of goes away from the meaning of what I'm trying to express in the character or within the story.
So as I was writing, I was talking to my mentor about it, and then I was talking to Edwin [Kemp Attrill] about it and they all said “Oh hey you know what. You could just put spoken word into it” and “I was like Oh what? Like I've already written this. It's like, it's like a proper monologue.” And now I was like “Okay maybe I can add to it and really make it mine.” So I did.
I think I did a brink of six stanzas and I broke it apart. [So] there'll be rhythm and cadence in every first third or fifth. And every now and then the character would go from talking about something in a sincere logical way which would be in a very monologue kind of form. And then, when they got emotional, we would break into cadence and rhythm and then poetry and that would come out. Then it would slow down and you would have that kind of floor where you're in-between the two.
Image Description: A black and white photo. Valerie is looking away from the camera, a smile on her lips. Photographer: Alex Kwong.
What was your first reaction to Matcho’s piece?
Valerie: Well first of all, when I saw the title TIta I knew it was very much kind of a Filipino driven… But once I read the piece it didn't even, though I could recognise, culturally, through you know many women like this in my community as a Filipino, but it actually just kind of resonated with you know a lot of things. You know the kind of voice in your head and the way they think? I guess for me, sometimes when you look at characters like there is a bit of that cringe factor. But mostly as a performer I really look at characters in a kind of curiosity. “Why do they think like that?”
[cntd.] These last few months we've seen and heard this kind of person. You know questioning her confusion, her worries. You know her fickleness. And I guess all of us have experienced that realisation of the enormity of this thing and how we all have to have our responsibility you know. So yeah. So we can kind of like help not just the government but each other through these tough times. So yeah, I really recognise a lot in her and I really like that inner conflict that she has, [that] she experiences throughout the monologue. Trying to balance those rules and regulations that's been put in place but also really trying to come to think of the practicalities of life; like earning a living, looking after families. I really enjoyed the challenge of getting into that character and also getting into the rhythm of Matcho’s words because it's a very different rhythm to how I would speak. So that's always kind of nice, getting to know the head of another person's work.
Tell us about the film shoot, did you have any expectations going into it?
Valerie: Oh look, not really because as you know the turnaround is so quick and there's not a lot of hours to do the two monologues. Edwin and I actually didn't really talk much before the shoot. We exchanged an email, I asked him if he wanted me to think about it… You know anything in particular for both the monologues, but he didn't want to overthink it which I kind of liked.
There's that certain ownership that you have as a performer to interpret the works I suppose and then on the day he added some subtleties into the work and built in a heightening when it was needed. It's such a short amount of time to perfect anything, most pieces were done in one take. I have such enormous respect for everyone working on this project… Really, because I'm sure as much as that kind of pressure can be fun, and I know that it went like this kind of pressure, but that can be very challenging for me. I felt the challenge of it is just because of the quick turnaround of learning monologues as well as the short amount of time. But I enjoyed it because also it was freeing. You just go for it.
Image Description: A black and white photo. Valerie is in the middle, a wide and joyous expression on her face as she steps between stacked boxes. A person is on the left hand side and a person on the right hand side, holding the boxes. Photographer: Alex Kwong.
Image Description: A black and white photo. Matcho is in the middle, jumping through two stacks of boxes. A person is on the left hand side and a person on the right hand side. Photographer: Alex Kwong.
You’ve now seen the episode, how do you think it went?
Matcho: VALERIE. You did really good. It exceeded my expectations.
Valerie sent me a message right after she recorded it and she was like “Oh I tried my best. Like I hope it's okay. We did it, we filmed.” And I was like “Now I'm sure you did great.” When they told me that they picked Valerie for I was like “Oh yeah that's cool.” It doesn't have to be a Filipino, but they chose a Filipino and she brought that character to life… I could not see this as a real person until Valerie. I played it out and made it real like real life. You know when you write poetry… You like writing it in a sense like this is an expression of life, my internal thinking. It's like… It's like she made it like this is why I am and this is a real person rather than having the plateau of a concept. Like a personification of something that you're trying to express. She made it into an actual genuine character, something I could believe and it was like wow she really is Tita.
How have people around you reacted to the episode? Who’s seen it?
Valerie: Well, mostly my friends and families. They've been really very supportive. They've really enjoyed the monologues as a whole. I know they've seen both episodes now and actually went through all the 10 monologues in each episode. So I'm quite proud of them for that.
They've been very positive and they've loved the stories, they've loved the performances. I think you know with my family they've enjoyed Tita and could relate to it. I suppose it is to the character in some ways, especially those frustrations. Especially at the very beginning [of the pandemic] because they were all just so confused and didn't have a lot of information so they could really resonate and connect with that. But you know they've all been very supportive and have really enjoyed the performances. So yeah I can only go by that.
What do you hope people will take away from watching DECAMERON 2.0 and Tita?
Valerie: Look as much as I hate this term that's been thrown around, that ‘we are all in this together’, but in some ways, that's what I take from DECAMERON 2.0. Not just as artists but as people and that through this is a creative platform and sharing stories is a way of moving forward. I guess and it's a way of connecting and connecting with each other. I think that's the biggest thing that I get from it. So this is what I hope that people get some of this wealth.
Matcho: That throughout this whole pandemic sometimes there's not much you can do with your external situation. Except I continue to sort of make good with what you're aware of and sort of being conscious of what your consequences are if you go out and you're sick and you're making everybody else sick because we're just… We're still fighting it right now. Yeah. Not to get caught up in the drama of blaming as well as a lot of toxic blaming? Like blaming China, or blaming a person that came into the country, or travelled interstate and let it spread. I think it's more about being human. I feel like 2020, assuring us that there's so much that has happened but we're still able to overcome a lot of the stuff by just being together.
DECAMERON 2.0 is presented by State Theatre Company South Australia and ActNow Theatre.
TITA can be found in Episode One.
