Adelaide Festival. Windmill Theatre Company. Adelaide Entertainment Centre. 28 Feb 2026
As the audience files into the arena and climbs into the bleachers, skaters whizz around the track; women in shorts, t-shirts, helmets and knee pads. It’s already exciting, as they form patterns and weave in and around each other. It’s roller derby!
Based on the experiences of Director Clare Watson and penned by Virginia Gay, Mama Does Derby is the story of the very close relationship between single mother, Maxine (Amber McMahon) and teenage daughter Billie (Elvy-Lee Quici). The pair do everything together, whether it be road trips across the country or travelling through Tibet. It’s been a nomadic life, so it’s all a bit of a shock to end up in a small town after inheriting a house.
It’s time to do normal things, like go to school, take driving lessons, get a job in admin. But these two approach normality from way left of centre, and thanks to Gay’s sparkling script, the repartee between the two sets them up to deal with it all as they always have, together. And defending/supporting each other to the hilt. Until… But that’s later.
Driving lessons come via Weird Neil, the neighbour (Antoine Jelk), who has a minor preoccupation with death. And the car is an old hearse. At school, Billie is befriended by Hux (Aud Mason-Hyde) who has some issues of his own but recognises the outsider in Billie. Billie, an artist, is fascinated with Frida Kahlo and soon enough is in trouble at school for filling her books with ‘doodles’, adaptations of Kahlo’s work. Enter the counsellor/therapist (Annabel Matheson) and the darker side of this story begins to emerge.
Billie is afraid; of the dark in her bedroom, of the demon who lives under the bed and of the crushing weight that settles on her chest when she tries to sleep. “Name your demon!” suggests the therapist.
A word on this demon. Black and sparkling, we first see it as a large, clawed hand, sliding out from under the bed. It emerges a little more each night, unless we see it in all its fearsome wonder. And a wonder it is. A lissom, elastic, sinuous creature, a voice scraped from an ancient tomb, a body that winds and twists itself around the room, taunting, horrifying yet chillingly attractive. Benjamin Hancock threatens to steal the show with this character;’ fortunately, Gay pulls it all back when Billie, as her therapist advises, names the creature ‘Nathan’. And blow me down if that’s not the creature’s name. “How did you know?” develops into a relationship, that by the end…
…but that would be telling.
It seems to take quite a while before we get to the roller derby component of the show, but in the meantime, the skaters (who hail from the Adelaide Roller Derby League) have not been idle. The set itself is on wheels; couches, bedrooms and kitchens are rolled in and out by the derby crew, as is the three-piece live band. Dressed in the black and white stripes of umpires, under the direction of Joe Paradise Lui (music director/guitar and vocals) they pump out excerpts of artists of the ilk of Charlie XCX and Bikini Kill, add a bit of narration and even take on the odd role (the afore mentioned Antoine Jelk also plays drums and is the voice of Nathan).
Maxine finally takes to the wheels. After a bit of night skating, she comes across the derby gals. She keeps this from Billie; she just wants a little bit of something for herself. Billie’s night terrors become worse and eventually, after being left at home by herself again, she discovers that ‘Mad Max’ has been keeping secrets from her. Can the relationship survive this?
Amber McMahon is a consummate comic actor. She uses her face, her body and her voice to accentuate lines and scenes, bringing to her character the strength of the independent woman, the pathos of loneliness and the blinding protection of the single mother for her offspring. And all with a comedic and dramatic timing that demonstrates the skilled actor she is.
Elvy-Lee Quici brings confusion and vulnerability to the juggle between her teenager hood and a world-weary knowledge beyond her years, as she discovers why Nathan is in her life, and just what the weight is that lies heavy upon her young body. She is at once childlike and a blossoming young woman, learning to let go.
Virginia Gay and Clare Watson have done a sterling job; the script is funny, sad, insightful, intelligent and incisive. The direction is clear and clever, the set delightful, and the characters are beautifully realised. This production promises much, and with just a touch of biffo, it delivers.
Arna Eyers-White
When: 28 Feb to 8 Mar
Where: Adelaide Entertainment Centre
Bookings: ticketek.com.au
