A Show About Anger

I performed A Show About Anger at The Dive Bar in the King’s Cross Hotel as part of the 2018 Sydney Fringe Festival. To set the context, it started with this monologue:

I grew up in a house where anger wasn’t handled well. Let me take you back there:

Now don’t get me wrong; my Mum lets her anger flow freely. But she rarely uses the actual words: “I am angry”. Instead, her anger comes out as hurtful criticism, put-downs and emotional bullying.

Dad isn’t any better. He bottles up his anger so badly that he often seethes with resentment so loudly that I can hear him muttering to himself when I’m playing in the next room. It’s frightening.

All it takes is for Mum to walk in and say: “What’s wrong with you? You stupid creature!”

And BANG… the next round of World War 3 is back on again.

Now I’ve read enough Pop Psychology to know that my adult emotional responses are just conditioned projections of my inner child’s unhealed early life experiences.

So I don’t much care if you cut me off in the traffic.

But if you criticise me unjustly, tell me I’m wrong about how I feel, or reject my sensitivity because it makes you uncomfortable about yours…

These are the things that make me angry.

I grew up deeply ashamed of my emotions, and learned to internalise my anger because nobody taught me how to channel it productively into assertiveness. This show explores anger and how it can be expressed in ways that are either constructive or destructive.

Includes my original songs:

• What’s Wrong With You
• Everything Is Fucked
• Music Theory Class
• For Fuck’s Sake Listen
• Can’t Be Bothered
• Snotty Little Private Schoolgirl
• Message To My Younger Self
• Yay!

The show also covers:

• How to stack the audience so they laugh even when I’m not funny
• How to be assertive with manspreading strangers on public transport
• What do when the audience start heckling each other
• How to stop complaining
• An impromptu audience sing-along

Enjoy the show: