melita rowston
writer
director
painter
performer
The Giant Worm Show!
Photography c. Marnya Rothe
Follow your dreams. No matter how shit they are…
Once upon a time in 1974, a tiny town called Korumburra faced perilous decline until a local teacher decided to capitalise on what they had bigger and better than anywhere else – a giant worm.
Known as 'The Wonder from Down Under,' the world's largest earthworm is three metres long and can only be found in Gippsland, Victoria.
One hundred metres of pink material, two golf buggy wheels and a roll of poly pipe later, Karmai the giant pink worm puppet was born. Manipulated by 34 school children, this blind, deaf and boneless folk hero took the world by storm!
Karmai spawned a giant worm festival, celebrity Worm Kings (Daryl Somers, Shirley Strachan), a children’s book, and most importantly – Karmai saved a town. Then Karmai disappeared.
Now Melita Rowston goes on a mission to find Karmai and its elusive creator. Accompanied by foul-mouthed manifestations of TV puppets Ossie Ostrich and Claude the Crow (wrangled by Benito Di Fonzo), she worm-watches in muddy paddocks, gate crashes a giant concrete worm and meets TV celebrities and quirky locals whose lives were transformed by a big pink puppet. But the man whose dream saved a town is nowhere to be found...
'The Giant Worm Show!' is the true and very strange story of Melita Rowston’s search for a lost Aussie legend. It’s proof that when we seek magic in our lives, sometimes we need to look no further than our own backyard.
“Did I think it was weird being asked to be Worm King?” Daryl Somers (Worm King, 1982) tells Melita. “At the time I’d been talking to an Ostrich for 11 years so it was completely natural for me.”
Rowston’s latest Shit Tourism Talk (following the fringe hit '6 Degrees of Ned Kelly') is part TED talk, comic-monologue and 70s variety show!
WARNING: Contains Big Things, graphic depictions of Australian TV stars and Karmai – the world's largest earthworm puppet.
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MELITA ROWSTON'S SHIT TOURISM PRESENTS
THE GIANT WORM SHOW!
Written and performed by
Melita Rowston and Benito Di Fonzo
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Adelaide Fringe 2017:
22 - 25 February, 1 - 4 March, 2017
BASEM3NT,
15-17 Featherstone Pl, Adelaide
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Sydney Fringe 2016:
6 - 10 September, 2016
The Old 505 Theatre @ 5 ELIZA ST, Newtown
Stage Manager: Jo Jewitt
2SER Stages interview
Talking Live interview