Image: Tammy Winter
When
2020: developed and presented in the Melbourne Fringe Festival 12-29 November 2020
2020: Vitalstatistix Adhocracy residency
Creative team
Lead artist and Writer Michele Lee
Director Ming-Zhu Hii
Dramaturg Jessica Bellamy
Sound Design and Composition by Russell Goldsmith
Performer Maia Thomas
Graphic design Tammy Winter
Photography Ming-Zhu Hii
Thanks to consultations from Julia Gaulton, Jane Ly, Micheline Lee, Hanna Cormick and Chrissie Robinson
About
Format
A story told as 7 x 10-minute audio plays
Content
Nikki is the Broth Bitch—famous for her bad-ass broths, author of edgy cook books, and the global face of Soup for Change. She’s trying to win back a fanbase with her 7-day ‘Just Fucking Love Yourself’ soup program, free via podcast.
The 7 x humourous podcasts are released daily from Monday 23 November 2020, as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival 2020.
Supporters
Development and presentation: Melbourne Fringe Festival, Vitalstatistix and the Australia Council for the Arts
Reviews
Lee’s writing does a good job of sounding like one woman’s stream-of-consciousness podcasting, but it’s technical and accomplished. The way little things Nikki says casually give away so much of her back story is masterful, and the performance by Thomas feels very real. The nuanced attention to detail in the telling of this story and the minimalist approach to “staging” it, as it were, with a few sparse diegetic sound effects, speaks to the precise directorial eye of Hii. Witness