Electric Production ‘The Box Show’ Turns Junk Into Extraordinary Funk

“One person’s trash is another’s treasure” says theatre practitioner Odeb Prior, who also looks upon council cleanups as a never-ending source for the instruments his performance group Junkyard Beats will be using in Riverside Theatre’s The Box Show.

“Open the tool shed and that is our orchestra,” Prior said. “We turn extraordinary junk into extraordinary funk or turning pollution into a musical solution,” he added, with all puns intended.

Think old Sulo bins, pots and pans, plastic bags and the human body and you have the core instruments for The Box Show, as it combines performance drumming, dance theatre and comedy to explore the role that waste material plays our society.

Prior found Junkyard Beats at a fork in his career

Prior came to the formation of Junkyard Beats after a round-about career in Israel and Europe as a touring artist, before landing in Sydney, with no real pathway forward.

“I had to start again and I would busk outside Newtown Station and then Central and later Pitt Street Mall for hours and hours, drumming every day,
Prior said.“I made a lot of noise and people started noticing.

“And that is what made me a good performer, because you have to deliver on the street every single time, or otherwise the hat doesn’t get full.”

‘The Box Show’ is a collective of energetic like-minded spirits

It didn’t take long before Prior’s energetic street performances gained the attention of other artists, and a collective of like-minded spirits was beginning.

“We got drummers who wanted to bang anything, and choreographers who were tired of the old school approach, plus actors and acrobats,” Prior said.

“We now have a whole range of different talents and skills, and people who are passionate about performing and sustainability and spreading the joy through creative recycling.” 

For The Box Show, Prior is working with co-writer and director Nigel Turner Carroll, whose previous credits include directing the Tap Pack North American tour, the Grease and Wizard of Oz Arena experiences and stage adaptations of English comedian David Walliam’s books.

“The main narrative is how you can turn on a recycling machine, flip it around and use it to your advantage to create the scenarios and comedy skits, and there is a lot of physical humour,” Prior said.

“Each character has its own specialty, and we all have our own characteristics, and this is what brings the joy to the show.”

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Prior stresses that The Box Show is for everyone, having just returned from a tour of China where they found a common language with the audiences.

“The show is not in any language, but a language called rhythm-ish, in which rhythm and gibberish crosses over, and there is something there for everyone,” Prior said.

“We have a whole rollercoaster and a journey for this magical junkyard.”

The Box Show

Riverside Theatres, 21-23 January, 2025.