It’s never easy for a performer to find themselves overshadowed by a co-star, but one can imagine that pain might feel particularly acute when the scene-stealer in question is completely inanimate.
That’s the predicament veteran performer Wayne Scott Kermond is currently mired in, thanks to his involvement in a multi-disciplinary cabaret performance named Spiegel’esque, due to hit Sydney this month.
Sure, Kermond might have a rich theatrical background and years of experience, but he’s got nothing on the 97-year-old venue he’s going to be performing in. The Spiegel Zelt has survived a world war and years of theatrical wear and tear, imbuing it with a rich sense of history. “I worked in her … for the first time two years ago,” says Kermond of his illustrious co-star. “I’m looking forward to going back to working in her again. She’s a very special venue.
“Being a Spiegel Zelt, she’s actually a mirrored tent,” he explains. “She has a wonderful history of courting. Many years ago, when young people were courting, they weren’t actually allowed to have eye contact. The Spiegel Zelt was a lovely way of young people meeting each other and they could look at each other in the mirror rather than looking at each other directly.”
Kermond isn’t only set to act as the show’s MC, he’s also Spiegel’esque’s producer, and though there are many who might find the juggling of both onstage and offstage roles difficult, Kermond is an old hand who has adapted to such pressures with a genuine ease. “We’re currently doing quite a lot of pre-production,” he says. “We’re still writing and we’re still learning. Particularly in terms of producing the show, it’s obviously quite demanding. But that’s the fun of it. That’s part of the challenge.”
Though the show juggles a range of theatrical styles, incorporating dance, cabaret and comedy, Spiegel’esque is saved from being a total mish-mash by its incorporation of a strong thematic through-line. That’s where the Zelt comes in, yet again – the venue has deeply informed the production’s mix of the old and the new.
“It’s good in a way, because it helps us to create a theme,” Kermond says. “Obviously the Zelt is a beautiful old tent, so we try to work within those parameters. People who walk into the tent will obviously be taken up by the ambience and the history and how beautiful the look of the tent is. So we try and enhance that with the show and try to take people back to that time period. People of that time would have enjoyed the tent and seen cabaret of that period – we draw on that.
“Of course, we also create a contemporary feel too. But we want to utilise the romance and the history. So it is an experience, not only for people walking in and experiencing the tent, but also the way in which the show will reflect that history. We work from that. That makes it kind of easy in a way.”
For Kermond, the mix of old and new styles also serves as a touching nod to his own personal history, adding a vague sense of autobiography to the performance. “My family were all brought up through that whole vaudeville variety cabaret era, coming through the ’30s through to now,” he says. “There was a lot of change in the theatres, while working in cabaret through the ’50s and ’60s and in nightclubs. I went through a little bit of that history with my parents, touring and working with them. I try and utilise all those experiences and bring them to the show.”
[Spiegel’esque photo © Paramount Studios]
Spiegel’esque runs fromWednesday November 23 atSpiegel Zelt, Leichhardt.
