The National Drama School Actors Ensemble Will Perform GOLDEN SOIL & WEALTH FOR TOIL

Under the direction of internationally acclaimed Clowning and Bouffon master Fabio Motta, The National Drama School Actors Ensemble, comprising final year Advanced Diploma students, present their self-devised end-of-year production Golden Soil & Wealth for Toil at Theatreworks Explosive Factory from 19-29 November.

A grotesque and satirical adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Visit (1956), this eye-opening student production is a darkly comic fable that takes aim at greed and hypocrisy, while asking the question, “How much is a mate worth?”

Director Fabio Motta says Bouffon is a style of theatre that revels in mockery and grotesque satire, allowing students to step outside traditional boundaries.

“Bouffon performers embody distorted, amplified characters to expose society's hypocrisies and absurdities. They mock everything from politics, religion, and money to morality and death. Nothing is off limits. The Band of Bouffons are always playing with truth to reveal the dark side of humanity,” says Motta.

“It's also a powerful training tool for actors that  demands courage, physical commitment, deep listening, and ensemble collaboration to bring stories to life. The form encourages performers to take risks, embrace discomfort, and connect with others in shared play and fearless truth-telling through pleasure and mockery!”

For audiences, Bouffon offers a thrilling mix of laughter and unease, a belly laugh followed by a shudder as it holds up a mirror to our collective pretence and hidden truths. Through this playful provocation, audiences are invited to question, reflect, and recognise the absurdity within themselves and the world around them.

In their final year of the Advanced Diploma in Acting, the students have worked under the guidance of Motta to create a self-devised work that delves deep into the socioeconomic issues and hypocrisies within Australia. It promises to induce laughter, shock and self reflection. 

In Golden Soil & Wealth for Toil, a band of Bouffons have been watching the tragic game of materialism, greed, and social injustice play out beneath the banner of the Aussie, ‘fair go'. Now, they have come out of hiding to tell their tale in the once thriving mining town of Bendiwagga, only to find it half-abandoned: rusting sheds, a dried-up riverbed, and a desolate footy oval. What remains are scraps and stubborn pride as they cling to the myth of “mateship.” Enter Va-Gina Coalheart — a grotesque mining heiress who makes the town of Bendiwagga an offer that would save them! But at what cost?

Australia - Melbourne Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

1. BEETLEJUICE THE MUSICAL (Regent Theatre, Melbourne)

54.5% of votes

2. TWELFTH NIGHT (St Kilda Botanical Gardens)

18.4% of votes

3. MJ THE MUSICAL (Her Majesty's Theatre)

16.4% of votes

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