Grand Gesture by The People

I love you. I love New Year’s Eve. I love Romeo. I love the house you built me. I love Paris. I love the top of the Empire State Building. I love the summer. I love my brother. I love dogs. I love Frida Kahlo. I love Ryan Gosling. I love mid-century architecture. I love Adidas. I love banana bread. I love my Macbook Pro. I love you.

Using verbatim romcom texts as a starting point and everything in the universe as an ending point, Grand Gesture is a takedown of the one-true-love bullshit we have all been eating since birth. A verbatim pop Frankenstein monster created by theatre company The People, who brought you the sell-out season of The Bachelor s17e05 and the award-nominated A Disorganised Zoom Reading of the Script from Contagion.

“…real-ness but with dryness and an unapologetic anti-beauty-idealist aesthetic. It really delivers. It is a joyous and deliciously funny takedown of a silly TV show, but the underbelly is real. Real lives and hearts, and real expectations from real bullshit that we are all fed, that many cling to…” – The Melbourne Critique (on The Bachelor S17E05)

Content warning: This production contains sexual content and adult themes (sexual violence), coarse language, haze, and drug references.

Co-created and Directed by Katrina Cornwell and Morgan Rose (The People)
Co-created and Performed by Joel Beasley, Eamon Dunphy, Matilda Gibbs, Joe Kenny, Michelle McCowage, Finn McGrath, Ruby Rawlings and Katie Rowe
Co-produced by Natasha Phillips
Lighting Design by Lisa Mibus
Sound Design by Byron Scullin
Stage Manager Brooke Simmonds
Image by Sarah Walker