Bystander was developed in 2016 by Georgia King, Mark Storen and Alex Nell.

Since then Bystander has continued to develop as a work that takes the reflections of real people living in a community, responding to what it’s like to be a bystander in their world and presents them as ‘Headphone Verbatim Performance’, (meaning the actor wears headphones and delivers the text as they hear them, live, without embellishment).

This culminates in a performance featuring a live music response to each story by our resident band Kettlefish. An installation component consisting of photographic portraits of each participant is left in the community for people to experience and revisit in their own time in the weeks following. This is coupled with listening stations spotlighting each participants story.

Previous versions of Bystander

Beverley, Margaret River, Augusta, Harvey, Bunbury, Kalgoorlie, Geraldton & Collie

Click link below for a review of our Margaret River Shows.

https://www.seesawmag.com.au/2020/10/extraordinary-tales-about-ordinary-people

Bystander Participants & Audience

TESTIMONIALS

BEVERLEY

Hi Georgie & Mark,

Just a quick note to say a huge thank you for Saturday night in Beverley. I really didn’t know what was going to happen, but was so impressed with the night and how you were able to portray the people of Beverley you interviewed. I just wish more would have been there to see your  talent. I just loved every interview that you did with our Beverley folk.  It gave me an insight personally to their lives and perhaps why they have made Beverley their home. The accents, the facial expresssions, the stance, you were the people you interviewed, every bit of the night was wonderful. No maybe it was a bit chilly!

But I loved what you did. Congratulations on a great night.

Many thanks

Jenny Rayner

“It really was an amazing evening and totally exceeded my expectations! I hope that if you take it to other towns they will get behind you and attend. It really is the most unique and interesting show I have seen in a very long time!!”
Britt


“I wanted to let you know just how successful and appreciated your recent introduction of the “Bystander project” was in Beverley.
The response from the community has been only positive and I have had many people asking when it can be done again. The way you interacted and engaged with everyone that wanted to be involved was a credit to you, Georgia and the Whiskey and Boots production team including Holly. By using the Residency and locating yourselves in our community it also gave the town of Beverley a sense of ownership as well. We are used to people Bumping in and bumping out, but by walking amongst us I think it helped to bring the community onside.
The project was especially pleasing to me as it brought a whole swag of new people on board who may not have normally interacted within the Arts side of the community. The end result has meant that there is now a core group of people that are now much more involved and engaged with the performing arts and have seen from being involved with the Bystander project that the performing arts can offer something very inclusive for everyone.

The enjoyment we all got from hearing such a diverse range of peoples stories and the excellent way that you two presented and performed them was the talk of the Town. The original music and songs about the town were very popular as well.
One of the other benefits for our community has been that, seeds have been planted for a local drama group getting started. We now have a group of 8 people that have had a couple of meetings and have planned a night of Theatre produced and performed by locals. I honestly believe that it was the way that the Bystander project immersed itself with the locals that opened this new door.

I wish you both every success in the future and I sincerely hope that many more Towns and audiences can get the same wonderful experience that we in Beverley did.”

Bystander – Beverly Installation

“Loved it. Just wonderful. Photos just captured the people perfectly.”

“Loved this project. So interesting to see images and have the words. Just sorry to have missed your performance. Very engaging to “meet.” A few locals this way. Thank you.”

“Being new to town and staying at the Station – this has given me a fascinating insight into the lives of the people in Beverly – a wonderful community spirit prevails here – thank you for sharing and presenting in such a professional way – brilliant audio and photographs.”

Bystander – Margaret River Participant Testimonials

“I think it worked 100% it was a major success.”

“The reason I did it was my interest in community history. I think we should be recording”

“It was like chatting to a friend.”

“They were so easy to talk to.”

“This sort of thing can help people appreciate other peoples stories more.”

“Just talking to people and having their stories recorded for when they’re not around is wonderful.”

“They way they talked and the accent… Everything was in there word for word.”

“The response from the people made me feel really good about it. And at the end people come up to us and they were all talking about how much they enjoyed it… Yeah it was a feel good thing.”

“It managed to jog your memories of things that have happened over your life.” “I thought we were quite privileged to be asked.”
“A beautiful opportunity.”
“I think everyone’s got a story…”

“A lot of people don’t realise the history… It gives a whole other aspect to the area.”

“Hopefully the project makes people think a bit more about the history and it can get taken up by the Shire or someone else too.”

“What I really enjoyed was listening to get an insight.” “It’s the voices that you don’t get to hear.”
“I hope it just keeps going.”
“It’s the stories of people that’s important to people.”

“All I can say is Mark and Georgia did a brilliant job and Holly was wonderful as well, she just followed us around and took photo after photo and when I looked in the little booklet I thought, I didn’t even know she took that. But Holly was amazing. But Mark and Georgia we just felt like we’d known them forever and it was just really nice to talk to them.”

“They’re great people, they’re very good performers, you know I was blown away by it and I was proud to be part of it. And proud of you guys too [other participants], it was just awesome… Hearing from people I didn’t know that well then I felt like I knew them.”

“Yeah incredible event. Shame it couldn’t go for a few more weeks… If it doesn’t continue somehow it’s a shame. Brilliant.”

“I think they did a wonderful job… And they were so natural and made you feel so comfortable and the feedback afterwards has been excellent. It was wonderful.”

“As an audience member I really loved it.”