Yangqi Cao

The Drover's Wife has a strong plot, which involves race, gender, violence, and inheritance. It is set in the dense scrubland of the Alpine country of the Snowy Mountains. When I read the script, I realized how powerful and hard women are, and how difficult life is in the bush.

To make the audience empathize I chose to make The Drover's Wife perform at 45 Downstairs, as the features of this venue are the intimate distance between the audience and the performers and a unique shabby feeling. The key point of my design is to make the scene look real, to make the audience feel as if they were there in the scrubland and immersed in the performance. As the audience descends the staircase, the sound of scrubland becomes increasingly audible and the weeds and shrubs lining the staircase are visible. Before the audience enters, they already sense the atmosphere of scrubland.