Tamzen Hayes has been called Australia’s very own Phoebe-Waller Bridge.Tamzen’s response to this is interesting,“I think that people compare me to Phoebe Waller Bridge because we both wrote a show where we could really play someone close to ourselves and explore our feelings at a particular time in our lives. Phoebe also says that she writes about ‘female rage’ and there is a lot of this underlying a lot of my stories as well. I think the ability to laugh at yourself and situations you have found yourself in is really important and I think we both hold that belief.”
The Melbourne Writers Festival asked Tamzen to pitch a performance idea on the topic of Love. Tamzen had just come out of her first serious relationship so romantic love was imprinted on her brain.
“I often walk away from situations and conversations wishing I said been able to communicate so much more than I actually did, I find myself on a daily basis having imaginary conversations out loud in my car or in my head, these conversations are ones I wish I had probably only moments ago with someone but for some reason I couldn’t.These conversations then get stuck in my throat like thick phlegm. They can get stuck for years and there’s no way of coughing them out.”
Tamzen, an actress and writer shares her sharp dark humour in her solo show ‘Never Said Motel’ which she wrote and performs in. The show premiered at The Melbourne Writers Festival in 2019. Since then, ‘Never Said Motel’ has traveled around the Victorian countryside with OK Motels. The show is coming to the Melbourne Fringe Festival this October.
Tamzen has been on our screens in TV Shows such as The Doctor Blake Mysteries and Winners and Losers. She is no stranger to theatrical work with 80 minutes No Interval at Theatreworks (2018), All Of My Friends Were There at Theatreworks and her multiple shows as part of the ensemble in the performance art group The Boon Companions.
Hayes says: “I love to create strange characters. I also love performing amongst crowds and have performed at The Melbourne Writers Festival and Dark Mofo. I think everyone has a little bit of strangeness in them. It’s important to create characters that make people think and reflect and understand something about them in the story you are telling. I think if you are able to tap into feelings and emotions people don’t connect to everyday, it makes for a more meaningful and empowering performance.”
Tamzen will be performing ‘Never Said Motel’ at the Melbourne Writers Festival in September.
Tamzen adds: “Like a motel, I think people come and go from our lives. We are the motel sometimes, people come, stay for a bit, maybe scratch their name into the wall, maybe change the sheets, and maybe leave nothing but a trail of perfume as they shut the door.
Imagine all the things motel rooms see, imagine all the stories they have. Well I did, and I realised I have just as many stories and most of them feel unfinished, most feel like there was so much left unsaid. I want to say it all.
I wanted the show to really evoke a feeling of intimacy, I wanted these words to feel as real for the audience as they are for me. So I needed to speak the words to someone. I needed to share my thoughts with a real person and make the audience feel as though they are witnessing a real, intimate moment between two people.
So the idea that each night, 12 different audience members would take the place of real people from my life was born.
Before each of my stories an audience member comes onto the stage and sits into my “motel room” and I speak to them as though they are an ex lover, a one night stand, someone I had a bad date with ect. This allows me to feel as though these words are new every time and it also allows the audience to witness a real exchange of energy and gives them a voyeuristic experience that might, hopefully inspire them to say some words they have never had the courage to do.
Being older now, looking back on all these “relationships” I can also really see how toxic they were, how badly I was treated, so I also wrote this to stand up for the younger version of me, to be able to call out some bad behaviour that I was just allowing when I was wonder and more inexperienced.”
Hayes concludes: “It is a rollercoaster of experiences. She gets to say sorry to someone she hurt, gets to say goodbye to someone no longer on this earth, she gets to say I love you to someone no longer in her life, she gets to tell off a few people for treating her badly. It is nice to get some closure.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5491114/