Thomas Gorham, the artistic director, producer of (and a performer in) GODZ, got pissed off with me and hung up.
“Oh, look, I thought this would be fun; I can’t go on…,” and that was it.
“Hello, hello…”
My fault. I irritate people, it’s my DNA. Greeks have been bugging everyone for 3000 years. So why stop now?
The “award-winning” GODZ, will open for Sydney Fringe on August 31, after its successful run at the Adelaide Fringe and in Perth.
Apollo the god archery, music and dance, Dionysus the god of wine and raging , Eros (Cupid) the god of sex, and Heracles the beefed-up angst demigod whose daddy was Zeus, and mum, the mortal Alcmene – on mixed marriage that didn’t work that well.
The pun-laden media release is “Greeced” up. GODZ, is “a dive head-first into the lives of the ancient gods of Olympus” in a “bodyssey” – see what they do there? Body and Odyssey – “of gravity-defying stunts, tests of heroic strength.”
Melbourne-based, Head First Acrobats “reimagine Ancient Greece.”
I’ve not seen GODZ, but the promo videos, and stills, look fun – bawdy Disney Herc, meets video game, all working to get to Amsterdam.
As a hack for a Greek Australian masthead I ask the questions I pose to non-Greek curators and performers, that create Greekish stuff: “Have you read.. so and so?”. “Have you talked to Greeks and experts?”. ” Are there Greeks in the show?”
Disney meets raunchy Chippendales
Gorham did read Stephen Fry’s ‘Mythos’ – “a lovely book”, he says, though he adds, he will not use any of it.
“GODZ is about fun,” he says.
“We’re not out to educate; it’s purely for jokes – a comedy made for the Disney-level knowledge of Hercules.”
“Greek gods have permeated every culture; they’re everywhere, just like the best-selling video game Hades.”
Thank the GODZ for Hollywood and video games in promoting Hellenic culture.
We’re not out to educate; it’s purely for jokes – a comedy made for the Disney-level knowledge of Hercules
They have achieved more in getting the message out in our attention-deficit world than the vast sea of treatises, analyses, and historical accounts of Greeks. Much of which has been authored by those outside our culture, speaking about, and for us, but not to us.
The needling question that began to tip the interview was, “Would you do the same to a First Nations Dreamtime theme?”
“No. Are we allowed to do it? If someone from Greece found it offensive, it would start a conversation,” Gorham hasn’t worked out that there are a few Greeks here.
My question is unfair though; I ask it to prick the bubble of insanity cocooning the culture wars. I am also genuinely concerned about the impact anti-appropriation dogmatists have on creativity.
Art moves forward, challenges norms, and innovates through cultural exchange, and often appropriation.
Gorham is refreshingly honest, and kudos to him for playing around with Greek and any other stuff anyway he wants.
He does draw a line and for good reason, “when there is oppression, and your race or culture is the oppressor, it’s different.
“I am white, one of the oppressors, and Indigenous culture has been oppressed by white Australians who arrived here only 200 years ago.
“Greece was an empire, and important 3000 years ago… long ago,” Gorham adds. Well…Greece was never an empire, we were too busy fighting amongst ourselves and Alexander’s psycho imperial adventure was short lived.
However, we still think we have a link to our ancient intangible culture of 3000 years and more ago. Then again, who can tell the difference between the Romans and us? Eros has become Cupid in GODZ, and Heracles, Hercules. We’re all Roman, after all. Pax Romana.
“Ok, Ok… if not an empire, then Greek influence extended to many parts of the world then,” says the now agitated circus performer. Like I said, I was being picky.
Gorham says Greek myths and ancient culture have “become common,” he is right. They belongs to all it’s our gift to you, for better and worse.
“We’ve got a show with cavemen, we all derive from cavemen, and we did a show on cowboys, and we had no Americans in it.”
“This is entertainment; it’s comedy…” Gorham asserts. Bacchanalian homo-erotic acrobatics seem as authentically Greek as the old-school symposium (piss-up).
Penetrating and permeating
Ye GODZ! Gorham is right; we can be confident in the knowledge that we have penetrated and permeated all cultures. Even maybe sparked the Western civilisation.
A Western civilization that rejected us, since it pretended to Etton style Greek, not our swarthy eastern Mediterranean types- Greeks. These new Greeks from England and Germany, were whiter than us. We looked more like our Phoenician, Persian and Indian frenemies.
As for the pious ancient Greeks, and their gods, Gorham correctly asserts, Greeks no longer practise their ancient religions. It’s all a bit too polytheist, and tribal, and not great for justice and cohesion.
Christianity, and the 1000-year Second Holy Roman Catholic Empire, or Byzantine (Greek speaking) Empire, turned many of the GODZ into new saints.
“This has nothing to do with Greeks – it’s ancient Greek gods we’re playing with,” he is irritated.
I assure Gorham that the Greeks in Australia are not offended, and given I speak for every single Greek in the world, I try to assuage him by telling him that we love seeing non Greeks, feel like they own our culture.
We’re all the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, pointing to things Greek in others’ languages, art, architecture, and values. lifestyles.
“What do you mean, it belongs to me?” retorts Gorham.
It’s not about the Greeks – only Greek gods
“It’s not about Greeks, right,” Gorham is tells me again.
“It’s about four characters having a party, and those characters happen to be [Greek] legends.” The interview collapses.
In the end we are as irrelevant, as is Zeus or Aphrodite now – comic book characters.
What is relevant is that GODZ will be high energy, exciting, acrobatic and funny. A party fit for gods. Just don’t tell Gorham, it’s a Greek party.
Dates: 31 August – 1 October 2023
Venue: Spiegeltent Festival Garden, The Vault,
Entertainment Quarter, 122 Lang Rd, Moore Park, Sydney
Tickets via sydneyfringe.com/events/godz/