Get Well Soon

Digital Storytelling meets Contemporary Circus.

Presented with Melbourne Fringe Festival's Digital Hub, October 2022

Supported by Circus Oz and Melbourne Fringe's inaugural Springboard Program

Featuring a cast of over 20 Australian circus artists, writers, and creatives, Get Well Soon is a powerful exploration of living with a chronic health condition. This innovative digital work shares the real voices of those living with disability, chronic pain, and illnesses interwoven into a community narrative of experience. Across 8 chapters, Waiting, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Adjusting, Self Care, Struggling, Community and Hope, the threads between each experience are tied into a non-linear journey, as testament to the strength of vulnerability.

Whether you’ve seen too many doctors, you are a doctor, or you love someone who's going through it: Get Well Soon will inspire and advocate for the strength behind a diagnosis (and the circus of getting one).

Get Well Soon is a poignant, comedic reclamation of the unpredictability of chronic illnesses. The show has been created by, and for, those who can’t always Get Well Soon.

Our Story

After navigating 4 tireless years of pandemic-related setbacks, this champion collective of Australian circus artists premiered their titular digital show Get Well Soon on Melbourne Fringe Festival’s Digital Hub, on Friday 14th of October 2022.

This immense collaboration was created in partnership with Underground Media's Chris Bennett, and was presented with a suite of accessibility features including a Sensory and Content Guide (by Jamila Main and Evie Clayton), audio description, open captions, and AUSLAN interpretation.

The passion behind presenting in an unconventional, digital format was to support accessibility for immunocompromised audience and community, and the safely distanced participation of collaborators, who as of October 2022 were still living with heightened vulnerability in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The immense collaboration process, as documented in the 'Making Of' trailer, involved 4 years of process-driven creativity. A 2-week creative residency in June 2022 supported by Circobats Communnity Cirucs in Adelaide, SA, was the central filming for core artists Emily Loe, Abbie Madden, and Margot Mansfield.

Artists living with chronic health conditions across Australia (and Finland) contributed self-filmed footage on cameras, laptops and iPhones, voice memos and interviews. Over 200 hours of post-production were shared by Chris Bennett and Samantha Martin who collected, collated and edited the immense amounts of footage into a 40-minute digital show. The immeasurable support for this project cannot be understated with the in-kind support, hours and contributions of creatives across the country.