Prime Time at The Substation: Where Every Age Shares the Stage
Fourteen performers, one game of pass the parcel, and a show that treats every age as worth watching.
Director Penny Baron first pictured Prime Time more than ten years ago: people of different ages moving together and talking about what it’s like to be their age. The idea kept returning, and it’s now a 70-minute show at The Substation in Newport from 14 to 17 October. Penny spoke to me about how it came together, what happens in the room (there really is pass the parcel) and what to expect if you’re thinking of booking.
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Where the idea came from
The image stayed with Penny for over a decade. She and Carolyn Hanna, her co-artistic director at Born in a Taxi, would return to it whenever they were in blue-sky dreaming mode.
“We both knew there was something special about it,” she says. “It was a matter of when and how.”
The “how” began with a three-week artist residency at the Braybrook Community Hub. Penny and Carolyn talked with community members aged 4 to 93 and recorded more than 80 interviews.
“Each conversation blew my mind,” she says, and they were moving and enlightening for the people being interviewed as well.
How the stories and movement were made
Prime Time is a celebration of life in all its stages, with shared stories and perspectives, and the cast dancing and moving together. Penny says it also has “therapeutic benefits we didn’t see coming”.
Almost everything you see and hear live comes from the performers themselves, including the spoken text.
“This is a deeply collaborative work, and all the live content comes from the performers,” Penny says. “The art is in listening, seeing what emerges and shaping it.”
The Braybrook interviews haven’t been left behind. Composer and sound designer Michael Havir has embedded snippets of the recorded interviews into the music the cast dance to. Set and lighting designer Jenny Hector has created what Penny calls “a stunning visual set and lighting concept to frame the performers”.
Four decades of improvisation
Born in a Taxi has a particular way of working with movement, dance and improvisation, which it has developed over four decades. It sees, values and frames any body as dance and any person as a dancer.
The company has spent many years working across the spectrum of improvisation, creating and performing in public spaces, at events and in theatres, in many contexts and countries. Penny says that has given them a superpower: “connecting an audience of strangers in the spirit of play.”
“We have learned the real magic happens in the unexpected,” she says.
You can see that spirit of play in what’s planned for the evening.
A cast that became a family
Prime Time has been evolving since April 2023, including a stretch of more than a year when the cast didn’t see each other. “This cast has now become like a family,” Penny says. They’ve watched one another go through surgeries and become carers of partners.
They also lost Helen Walsh, the much-loved 93-year-old who inspired the project and passed away last year. The show is dedicated to her memory.
Helen changed how Penny thinks about getting older. “One of the most surprising moments that shifted my idea about age was when a 93-year-old Helen mentioned she had a 52-year-old lover who kept her young,” Penny says.
“It completely opened my eyes to what was possible as you age and to my own assumptions.”
What to expect on the night
The start is relaxed and informal. Before the show begins, a teenager takes a microphone and asks three to five audience members fun questions about their age. Later, the audience gets to play pass the parcel.
Penny’s hope for audiences in their 60s, 70s and 80s is simple: “Joy, connection, and a feeling of possibility and being seen.”
She also admits that squeezing more than ten years of material into 70 minutes has been her biggest frustration. She sees Prime Time as one step in a long-running project, with workshops, podcasts and gallery exhibitions all possible further down the track.
The Substation’s listing notes mild audience interaction and low lighting.
Tickets and session times
- Wednesday 14 October: 6pm to 7:10pm (preview performance)
- Thursday 15 and Friday 16 October: 6:30pm to 7:40pm
- Saturday 17 October: 2pm to 3:10pm
- Prices: $37 general admission, $27 concession or Hobsons Bay local, $10 First Nations
- Book tickets here
Seating is general admission, so it’s first come, first served. Arriving a little early gives you more choice of where to sit.
Accessibility at The Substation
Captions and Auslan: all performances have open captions and are Auslan-interpreted.
Relaxed performances: Penny describes the 2pm Saturday matinee as the Relaxed performance, with reduced sound and lighting and more freedom to move.
Reserved seats: a block of seats near the front exit is reserved for people with access needs, such as mobility limitations or low hearing, who may need to leave during the show.
Access Guide: available on request. The company sends it to anyone who asks.
Wheelchair access: the event is wheelchair accessible. You can enter the building by the ramp or the stairs at the main entrance, and a lift on the ground floor, to the left of the foyer, goes to levels 1 and 2.
Toilets: there are gender-neutral toilets on every level, including wheelchair accessible toilets on the ground floor (left-hand toilet) and on level 2 (right-hand toilet).
If you have particular seating needs, contact The Substation on (03) 9391 1110 or info@thesubstation.org.au before you book.
Getting there
Public transport: Newport Station (Werribee and Williamstown lines) is about 200 metres from The Substation. The station is wheelchair accessible, though its ramps have a steep gradient that some wheelchair users may find difficult. Buses 471, 947 and 432 stop at the Newport Interchange, 210 metres away, and the path from there is step-free with pedestrian crossings along Market Street.
Driving: there is ample off-street parking on both sides of the building, including accessible spaces. The closest accessible spaces are less than 100 metres away in front of Newport Bowls Club on Market Street, and Victorian Accessible Parking Permit holders can park in a standard bay for double the time on the sign. More spaces are available off Derwent Street, 150 metres from the building.
Prime Time, The Substation
1 Market Street, Newport VIC 3015
For enquiries, please contact The Substation on (03) 9391 1110 or info@thesubstation.org.au.
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