This year’s Kit Denton Fellowship was recently awarded to the provocative Back to Back Theatre, a Geelong based company whose “working process supports its ensemble of actors with intellectual disabilities as its creative core.” With a 21 year history Back to Back is one of Australia’s leading theatre companies, a shining example of what is possible when actors with a disability are given a voice, their skills developed and their art taken seriously.

The day after Back to Back received their award, they presented the world premiere of a new work, Afloat, at Brown’s Mart Theatre in Darwin. Starting with “memories of water”, this five-month collaboration between twenty local artists concluded with two theatrical performances in an alluring fusion of shadow puppetry, visual art, movement and animation. The first of its kind in Darwin, the multi-media show was performed by a talented young troupe of adults with intellectual disabilities.

Afloat has at it’s heart a fantastic story, largely set underwater, about the need for friendship. “Everyone should have friends,” says the enchanting Mermaid (Megan Halvorson) to the shipwrecked Fisherman (Joshua Campton). An obvious statement, perhaps, but not one the performers of Afloat ever take for granted. Marginalisation can be ongoing for those classified as different. And the result of living on the fringes? A profound sense of loneliness.

“A lot of their stories demonstrated a real isolation and longing,” says director Eden Thomsen. “Huge loneliness kept coming up. But they also have stories of friendships.”

During workshops the actors described real memories blanketed in imagination. “There’s a fascinating line between reality and imagination,” says Thomsen. “Sometimes precise and exquisite, other times unreliable or alarming, memories are always diverse and revealing.”

The youngest cast member, Alex McInnes, developed a character called Dolphin Boy, based on a memory he had of seeing a group of dolphins swim at the Nightcliff foreshore in Darwin. Often lonely, McInnes identifies with of the dolphins, wanting to see himself as part of a group. So Dolphin Boy was born, a character who is human by day but transforms into a dolphin at night. McInnes’ magical retelling of the story in performance earned him his first round of applause from the enthusiastic audience.

Afloat is as much a piece about how we tell our stories as it is about friendship and loneliness. In describing their memories McInnes and other cast members drew pictures and made paintings of characters and costumes. Different workshops were held so the stories could be retold in a variety of mediums. Tim Parish and Sam Hoffman created mesmerizing shadow puppets merged with underwater footage based on actors’ drawings. It was like watching a tender, silent movie told in an oversized fish tank. Songs like Shellie Morris’ “Is there anybody out there listening to me?” captured a longing to communicate with “people, talking about our day and our dreams”; and Nicky Forster’s delicate soundtrack of bubbles and ethereal noises was a perfect accompaniment to the intriguing underwater world.

Afloat is a tale told simply but that doesn’t mean it’s ignorant or unknowing. There’s wisdom to the stories. In a moment of desperate loneliness Callum Bateman, who plays a Hunter with great comic timing and strong stage presence, tells the sold out audience: “I have big claws and big teeth. I’m loud and ugly. No-one wants to let me in.” People’s fear causes them to run away from him. But it’s apparent that even the ugly Hunter needs a friend. By the end, he finds her in the form of a delightful and empathic Green Fish, played with obvious enjoyment by Alexia Amy. The creators of Afloat cleverly wove this actor’s limited speech phrases into the show. Michael Andrews’ Monkey Fish provides comic relief and his death, whilst trying to rescue the Mermaid, drew a genuinely shocked response from the audience. Fortunately though, Dolphin Boy came to the rescue, his magic spell bringing Monkey Fish back to life, eliciting McInnes second round of applause for the evening.

“ Afloat has been really wonderful,” says Thomsen warmly, ”but I see it as the beginning. I want to see more projects like this come about in Darwin. And I’d love to see ongoing workshops that create opportunities for young performers.” It’s a dream that could become a reality, especially with the ongoing support of Corrugated Iron Youth Arts and Arts Access Darwin. For now, however, the creators of Afloat have delivered a show they can be proud of, one with its own distinctive and original flavour. It’s a way off the professionalism of Geelong’s Back to Back Theatre but, judging by their courage and risk taking, becoming proficient theatre artists is simply another challenge for this young company. And, for people with intellectual disabilities, challenges are nothing new.

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