Maddie is the new Karen | Madeleine Border & Madeline Römcke
I arrive and a line ensues with a varied demographic of punters eagerly awaiting show time as we are ushered into the Waterloo Bay Leisure Centre, the last time I was here was for a youth festival called Bay Wave which a local youth service BABI host. As we enter, the venue, I expect to see walls of geriatric memorabilia and am surprised by its transformation, now a darkened room with long black curtains up and draped down either side there are a few rows of old school blue chair seating, full of people and I make my way down the front to find seats closer in.
On stage there’s an exercise bike, a treadmill, and a cardboard TV with a massive display projection – 2 hanging racks and a pair of short dungarees and docs. A muffin is perched on the seat of the exercise bike, and I let mind wander through what that might possible be used for during the performance.
The background music stops, and I hear some shouting from the back of the theatre. I hear everyone start shuffling around to see what’s happening and as I turn around, on either side of the top of the seating lanes are Maddie and Maddie. Madeleine Border and Madeline Römcke are our actors and cast for this piece, both Brisbane-based theatre makers who, as I investigated their bios, seem to be developing a repertoire of productions across the city. Madeleine Border’s background in political science and drama speaks through as she casually delivers a Karenesque chat cannoning with Römcke on the expectations women like ‘Karen’s’ might have. Both look ready for the races with red stilettos and fascinators to the nines, the soundtrack is lounge jazz, probably from a Café Del Mar compilation, which adds to the swanky swagger of the two’s progression down to stage.
As the winding down of the Karens take place, they are replaced by the Maddies who strip off into their undies and quickly transform into the title description with dark green dungarees and worn doc martens. The dialogue that each eloquently deliver, with punchiness and rehearsed delivery, highlights what Maddie’s are – Border states “I think she means well” about Maddies, saying they are: “Cool, Chic and sometimes a bitch” – the digital display comes up with an affirmation much like you see on the various social walls of women across the country Be the change you want to see.
Then show continues mixed with showings on the display of TV like stories of actors describing what Karens / Maddies are, the two Maddies interweave soliloquys of the stereotypical, neurotypical privileged white mid 20’s woman living in Australia. The audience are in hysterics, and it’s funny because….. it’s true. Karens might say things like ‘I’m comfortable’ when talking about their financial position, they donate to charities and also abuse telemarketers. Maddies however might take a while to order gluten free, dairy free, vego orders at cafes and get upset when they’re unable to do ‘swaps’ – “this waiter is taking their minimum wage problems out on me.” They might talk about the reasons for feeling overwhelmed by the astrological cycles of Mercury in Retrograde, they only buy free range eggs, and they are flooding their socials with woke af posts.
The pace of the show is dynamic. The exercise bike, the treadmill all relevant props in the wake of a life in the day of a typical white woman in her 20’s, privileged and living in the inner-city landscape. The muffin is eaten and referred to as part of what it means to bake consciously. I was hoping they might sit on it, but that’s another show. I laughed and was entertained by the idea that white people see themselves much the same way as POC sometimes see them. Basically, as a bit of a joke.
In my opinion Maddies feel a little better than Karens, they seem more in line with the ecological and social impact that privilege plays on the world and talk about being a good ally. Being a good ally is a difficult and complex pendulum of listening and supporting the marginalised in the ways they ask to be, which if altruism plays a part: everything works, when it doesn’t and it’s for notoriety or other social and economic gains we run into real trouble. Often this Maddie wokeness hides the layers of privilege that still exist and the fact that there is a show like this that was written by these two incredibly talented young writers, and that the show is near sold out, shows the relevance of this voice in our society today. Good on them for bringing this subculture into the light for all to analyse, laugh at and consider: Is that me up there?
