“It’s about the identity of regional Australia”: Shake & Stir on touring Fourteen to small towns

Shake & Stir’s Fourteen has been breaking hearts and changing minds across regional Australia this year. We caught up with the cast and crew before their performance in Toowoomba to talk about the importance of touring regional areas, and how audiences have responded to the confronting themes of Fourteen.

Fourteen, by journalist and author Shannon Molloy, has been described as this generation’s Holding the Man: a coming-of-age memoir about growing up gay in the 90s, in that most unforgiving of environments – an all-boys, rugby-loving high school in regional Queensland.

The novel has been optioned for a feature film, and adapted for the stage by Brisbane’s Shake & Stir, a company known for touring major works to schools, theatres and arts centres in regional and rural Australia.

After a debut season at Brisbane Festival in 2022, Shake & Stir has taken Fourteen on the road in 2024 for a vast 18 town tour, spanning regional NSW and Queensland with stops in the ACT, South Australia, NT, Tasmania, and Victoria. The company, founded in 2006, has been touring the country for 19 years, performing in over 150 venues nation-wide and reaching diverse audiences.

Fourteen’s director and Shake & Stir’s Co-Artistic Director Nick Skubij understands on a personal level the importance of small towns seeing top shelf theatre.

“I grew up regionally myself, in Cairns,” Skubij said, “so I didn’t have a lot of opportunity to engage with theatre, and for me those shows that came through town were life-changing, they put me on my course.”

Skubij said a large part of Shake & Stir’s raison d’etre is to take high production value, big shows into smaller towns, where marquee titles often don’t reach.

“Fourteen marks the 14th Playing Australia tour for Shake & Stir, and we’ve seen so much audience development over those years. We really believe regional audiences should have the same chance to see A-grade theatre as people in the capital cities.

“No audience is ever the same – and a show like this that deals with troubling themes and is intended to provoke discussion and deliver a strong moral message to the audience; seeing how the audience responds is really rewarding.
“[The show is] as traumatic as can be in moments, and as [emotionally] high as possible in others – it has this incredible camp 90s pop soundtrack. That spoke to us about those emotions of being a teenager,” he said.

The company has strategically added Q&As with the cast and author to the tour dates, to engage with audiences directly.

“It seems a lot of people from all walks of life can see something of themselves in it,” Skubij said, “and those reactions range from tears to joyful, cathartic experiences.”

In those Q&As, audience members and school groups shared personal experiences that mirrored Shannon’s story – “a reminder that this stuff still happens – it’s still a current story,” said lead actor Conor Leach, who plays Shannon.
“People volunteer how they related to the story, or how those closest to them related, or how their minds and hearts had changed by seeing Fourteen, which is a dream come true – we’re setting out to build empathy, so to feel that tangibly is really amazing.

“It’s a show about the identity of Australia, particularly regional Australia, and how communities treat their most marginalised, so it’s been a joy to take this show to communities around the country.”

^{Photo: Joel Devereux}

Head of Wardrobe Nicholas James tells of a particularly poignant moment, when cast and crew members were relaxing on the boardwalk in Townsville post-show.

“Someone who’d seen the show the night before came up and said she’d had no idea what it was about, she’d seen it advertised and come by herself, and it was the highlight of her holiday, she’d had the best time and more people need to see work like this – it was super eye-opening.

“Growing up as a queer person myself, if I had seen something like this it would have changed the trajectory of so many things, so I feel it’s my duty as a queer person and artist to help share this.”

Taking conversation-starting theatre to places where those conversations can be difficult is endlessly rewarding, Director Nick Skubij agreed.

“Listening to audiences after the show, overwhelmingly they’re drying their eyes and talking about how wonderful it was to see a young person go through hell and come out the other side.

“We all deserve the same opportunity to be exposed to ideas and stories of people who, even if they’re not like yourself, they exist – everyone can change, everyone can build empathy.”

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