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Damian Callinan: The Merger

Name: Damian Callinan: The Merger
Start: 2021-05-01T19:00:00+11:00
End: 2021-05-01T19:00:00+11:00
Location: Birregurra Mechanics Hall

Award-winning comedian Damian Callinan’s hit one-man show The Merger comes full circle and returns to the stage following the hugely successful 2018 feature film adaptation - starring Callinan himself.

75 minutes, no interval.
Warnings: Mild course language, adult themes, mild nudity. Ages 14+

THIS SHOW IS ON THE 2021 VCE PLAYLIST

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NOTE: THIS IS NOW A BYO SHOW.

Coops, Nugget, Macca. The usual suspects from a country football team, but the characters all emerge from the audience as we are lured into the world of Damian Callinan’s impressive one-man show about the Bodgy Creek Football Club.

A 70-minute one-man show set in the tiny country hamlet of Bodgy Creek, The Merger tells the story of the local footy team, The Roosters, which in sympathy with the flagging fortunes of the town itself is now having trouble fielding a side. The options are few. Fold the tent. Or merge with arch rivals, the loathsome Hudson’s Flat Redbacks. Coach Troy Carrington doesn’t give up easily though. He has a cunning plan to recruit asylum seekers as players. That the top of the bell curve in the team’s training regime coincides with Ramadan is challenging, but not insurmountable. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. You’ve heard of the Pacific solution. Well, this is the Bodgy Creek solution. Immediately prior to this inspired stroke of genius, the town and team were up Bodgy Creek, without the proverbial.

With subtle shifts in his physicality and vocal behavior, Callinan transforms instantly between characters, from belligerent Bull to Bull’s grandson, the awkward 10 year old documentary film-maker, Neil. Callinan interacts with the audience (casting us as the rest of the team) throughout, inviting us to experience the unfolding circumstances as if it were our own story. Which, indeed, it is. And that is what makes it, in my opinion, great theatre.

The show premiered at the 2010 Adelaide fringe before going to earn Damian his 3rd Barry Award nomination at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Since then the show has been intermittently toured throughout the country, including seasons at Sydney's Seymour Centre, Brisbane's Powerhouse & Holden Street Theatres and as well funded tours of WA, SA, Victoria & Tasmania.

Such was the success of the live show, momentum began to build to adapt the story into a feature film. After years of persistence & hard work, the film version of 'The Merger' received production funding from Screen Australia & Create NSW & was shot on location in the Riverina [NSW] in late 2017. The adaptation, written by & starring Callinan in the lead role, was selected to be the Gala Centrepiece at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August 2018 & received a wider theatrical release in September 2018. The film has gone on to receive many awards & nominations & has now been played in over 20 countries. The film was recently released on Netflix [2021] where it has made the Top 10 films & regularly appears on 'Popular on Netflix' banners.

REVIEWS

"The Merger is the kind of theatre that makes my life as a theatre-goer worth living. It's a well-crafted play, hilarious and gutsy, charming and dangerous, provocative and subversive." - ArtsHub

"Callinan is one of Australia's most talented character actors. The way he makes an easy and totally believable switch between wildly diverging characters is testament to his skills." - The West Australian

"He is a sharp comic performer and raconteur. What is surprising is the nimbleness and nuance in his characters. All the focus is on Callinan and he holds it expertly." - Sydney Morning Herald

About Damian Callinan

Damian Callinan is a multi award-winning stand-up comic, actor and writer. He is best known to TV audiences for his roles on Skithouse, Before The Game, Spicks and Specks and the Melbourne Comedy Festival Gala. It’s for his prolific output of live shows that Callinan is best regarded. His most decorated one man show The Merger (Barry Award nomination) now a feature film (released mid 2018).

His other award-winning shows include Sportsman’s Night [Barry nomination & Best Comedy Melbourne Fringe], Spaznuts [Piece Of Wood Comedians Choice Award at MICF], Proxy Heroes [Barry nomination], his comedy dance show The Cave the Rave [ABN Amro Edinburgh Foreign Exchange Award], and The Lost WW1 Diary (Best Comedy nomination Fringe World [Perth] & part of the Victorian VCE Playlist in 2017). Callinan has toured nationally with The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) with State Theatre Company SA, Road Trip with Mickey D, Townfolk, and Swing Man.