Billy White and his one-man show: Water for the Madman
Driven to perform from the age of five, Coffs Coast actor Billy White believes there’s always room to educate and find humour in any kind of subject matter – even niche topics like gay diabetes. His one-man show, Water for the Madman, has been described as “a wild theatre experience”, “a pitch black satire with bite” and “revelatory and fabulous”. Discover it for yourself on 26 August at the Bellingen Memorial Hall. Here, he reveals how his career on the stage began.
Let’s start at the beginning – where did you grow up?
I grew up in Bonville, just south of Sawtell. My folks built a house on acreage there back in 1994 and my whole life has blossomed from living in this incredibly beautiful, natural and nourishing environment they created in that community. Since then, I’ve spent the past 10 years living back and forth between Sydney and Coffs Harbour.
What inspired your interest in performing?
We had a family band – mum was on keyboards, dad and my brother played guitar and I was the vocalist. We’d cover everything from The Beatles to Aretha Franklin to Elvis. It was wild. I was performing from such a young age and loved it – I’m so appreciative to mum and dad for letting me run free and express myself on stage. From that time onwards I was constantly putting myself into any sort of production via school, local arts groups, drama clubs and eisteddfods. I even did a Channel 10 commercial for dad’s business, Coffs Carports, every year until the age of 18. That really gave me a taste for the industry and ignited this fire in me to explore a different version of myself by being an actor. Even as a child I can remember thinking about how I could transform myself into another type of personality. I’d ask myself: How does that make me feel, and what does that do to an audience?
How have your challenges fuelled your work?
I was diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic at the age of 14 and came out when I was 18. I found my way through, but learning to manage my chronic health condition and myself emotionally as a young queer person has certainly informed my work. I found performing soothing, it became my outlet to better understand who I am, what I am and enabled me to see just how far I’ve come in that time. It also ultimately set me on my path to exploring the niche topic of gay diabetes. It’s absurd, right? There’s obviously no correlation between the two – being gay doesn’t cause you to have diabetes and having diabetes doesn’t make you gay. But if you are diabetic and gay, there are health and lifestyle challenges that come with that. There are so many risk factors for diabetes management in general, but when you add in the smoking, drinking and eating disorders often associated with the gay community, as well as the high percentage of poor mental health because of the stigma we face, the result is not good. There are limited support groups for LGBTQI+ people living with diabetes which can feel incredibly isolating – that’s why I wrote Water for the Madman.
How long have you been working on this performance, and what does it mean to you?
I’ve been writing this show for three to four years, but it really only took shape last year and appeared at Coffs Harbour’s Jetty Memorial Theatre early last year. The show comprises spoken word, film and music and is ultimately about bookending my 20s as a gay diabetic. Which sounds ridiculous, but I thought the only way I could create something to spark conversation about type 1 diabetes and gay mental health was to satirise myself and my life, to bring some humour to the subject matter. So I built the show around the world's reaction to a pandemic by swapping out the Coronavirus with a newly discovered, autoimmune sexuality called ‘gay diabetes’. LGBTQI+ rights and diabetes health care has a vast and complex history, so combining the two provided a wealth of material to explore. It’s almost a fine balance between pleasure and pain – it’s about educating people, but also giving them a chance to laugh at themselves.
Where to from here for Billy White?
I hope to rework Water for the Madman into a number of different formats to reach different audiences, and plan on bringing the show to Sydney later this year. Most of my new work continues to explore type 1 diabetes, queerness and mental health. Whether that's through film, performance art, experimental video, visual art, spoken word or music, I’ve found my very unique niche and am driven to raise awareness of the issues faced by type 1 diabetics and the LGBTQI+ community all around the world. This is my life’s work – there are so many real, raw and authentic stories that deserve to be told and that’s what I intend to do.
Get your tickets today…
Water For The Madman is presented by Seacrest Productions Inc. Snap up your tickets for Billy’s performance at Bellingen Memorial Hall on 26 August here!
Billy is represented by Sydney Creative Management and he’s also a writer / director for product house Jack Ginger.
