The Hungry Games

The Hungry Games

co-creator (writer/director)

Dystopic fantasy meets reality TV in a wildly imaginative live performance by young people

I smell a revolution.

Step into a future world where the roles of humans and animals have been reversed and a group of children compete against each other for the ultimate prize… freedom. They race like horses, fight like dogs, and wind their way through mazes. The games play out in an arena in front of a live crowd of thousands and televised audience of millions, just like an episode of Big Brother. But the organisers may have bitten off more than they can chew when revolution features in the final showdown…

The Hungry Games is Chris’ second project working with Natalie Rose to facilitate a group of young people in the creation of an original piece of theatre. Like The Drawing, the work was developed at Shopfront Arts Co-Op in collaboration with its Junior Ensemble 2014. Eager to consolidate our model for using the Shopfront work as a blueprint for meaningfully engaging new groups of young people, we again approached Blacktown Arts and, through support from Arts NSW, held workshops culminating in a short performance season in the 2016 April school holidays. During the 2-week program, the new ensemble of 20 young people from the Blacktown community created new material for The Hungry Games, fleshing out the bare bones of the original work. The children imagined new characters and scenes, as well as designing their own costumes and set pieces (with help from the incredible Imogen Ross). They developed skills in improvisation, design, movement, voice and performance before expressing their ideas to their families and the community at large in the final shows.