Eliza Sanders Interview – Manage Your Expectations

We catch-up with the Multi-award winning maverick of the stage, Canberra’s very own Eliza Sanders who uses her unique blend of dance, clown and absurd philosophising to take the ‘trigger warning’ to its extreme in MANAGE YOUR EXPECTATIONS.

Welcome to Impulse Gamer Eliza! Tell us a little about your new show Manage Your Expectations and what can the audience expect?

This is such an ironic question for this particular show! Telling the audience what to expect in a show called Manage Your Expectations feels unnecessarily complicated. But that’s part of the joy of the show – finding the comedy complicating things unnecessarily. It’s quite a meta and existential show. The premise is that it starts with an explanation of everything that will happen in the show so the audiences can make a truely, deeply, pedantically informed decision as to whether they want to see it or not. Very quickly this task crumbles under the comic weight of its own impossibility. This bit is very wordy and a bit goofy, I’m constantly exposing the internal contradictions in everything I say. Some people find it hilarious, others find it maddening, I like the risk of that.

The second half of the show takes a turn towards the emotional and sincere. I share a series of very personal and emotional dance/ image sequences. They bring into question my relationship to romance, to parenting, to ancestry and colonisation, to death and to joy. This part is visual and expressionistic. There is beautiful film work involved and emotive dance movements.

Think audiences can expect to be joyously confused and then moved. I like to make people laugh in order to open up their hearts so they can cry.

Part-dance theatre and part-improvisation, what was the biggest challenge in this amalgamation?

Trying to explain it to people! The combination makes perfect sense to me but you really just have to come along and see it to find out how it really works.

And the most rewarding aspect?

Connecting with the audience after the showing and hearing their experiences and interpretations. There are loads of moments in the show that can be interpreted in many different ways. It’s amazing to me how someone can feel so intent and specific about the concept or meaning of a certain moment and someone else can see something completely different. I love hearing the audience’s interpretations because it reminds me how much our contexts shape us and helps to see the beauty in our differences. And yet, in sharing the differences in our interpretations I feel so connected.

Also, there are a few moments in the show where the audience is given a choice as to how much they want to see. I love hearing about how people made those choices and what emotions it brought up in them.

The most amazing thing is when someone gives me a hug after the show I can tell it has really moved something in them. That they have felt seen or understood in some way. That has happened a lot with this show and I’m so proud of it.

And the funniest aspect of your show?

There are loads of stupid puns woven into the first sections which I love. I’m a big fan of word play and the silly inconsistencies of language.

Once I really crack under the pressure of the impossibility of managing people’s expectations there is a big chaotic rambling about the meaning of life which I find so silly and hilarious.  I like swinging wildly between the absurd and the profound, between the sincere and the stupid.

What about the most philosophical question?

Oh so many!

How do we come to terms with our own contradictions? With the contradictions of our world?

How do we best care for ourselves and others without bubble wrapping ourselves into bored oblivion?

Are there better and worse ways to skin cats or is it just animal cruelty no matter how you look at it? (Not really this one … unless it’s a metaphor… which it probably is…most things can be metaphors… so there is a lesson in most things)

How can we use metaphor to understand the incompressible?

How to balance care and risk? How do we move into the future with trust and excitement in the unknown simultaneously?

Will the audience be able to manage “their” expectations after seeing your show?

Hopefully they will be able to Manage Their Expectations during the show at the very least. I think after the show it might simultaneously be harder and easier to Manage Their Expectations. We don’t know what’s to come, we never do. But hopefully they can share with me in the joy of diving into the unknown with a deeper sense of care, wonder and whimsy.

What are you most looking forward to touring in Australia?

All the people I will connect with along the way.

Discovering the new nuggets of wisdom the show will deliver through repetition.

Reconnecting with my home country after 13 years living (mostly) overseas.

Feeling joy and pleasure in the act of performing a work I’m really proud of, that’s fun and makes me feel connected to the audiences.

Being driven by a sense of purposefulness in sharing ideas that I think are worth spreading and pondering together with as many people as I can.

Lastly, what does the rest of 2024 hold for you? 

A bit of rest after 4 months on the road (with this and various other projects). Then some time writing songs and finalising my book of poetry before heading to the Whangarei for the next season of Manage Your Expectations!

2 Aug 2024 from 7:00pm to 8:10pm at Canberra Theatre Cenre

Tickets are available to purchase at canberratheatrecentre.com.au/show/manage-your-expectations-2024.

Concession prices are available, and tickets can be booked in a multi-show package to save up to $125* – 3-show & 5-show options available. Visit the website for details.