MOLT: An interview with Rian Howlett

On a brisk June night, I had the pleasure of sitting down at The Black Cat in Fitzroy with Rian Howlett. Rian is a multi-disciplinary artist, storyteller and actor whose show Museum of Lost Things is running at the end of this month in city venue Bar Ampere in a room called The Swamp.

Born in Hong Kong in 1993, he has performed in Brisbane, Perth, Hakuba (Japan) and Hong Kong. In 2015 he graduated from the three-year BA in Acting at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. He now specialises in fantastical work, which tickles the imagination through movement, text and visual spectacle. Museum of Lost things promises to be one of these, having sold out at Perth Fringe earlier this year. The show takes you down the rabbit hole to the depths of the lost and found and the stories behind them. Milk Bar Mag managed to catch up with Rian and have a chat about all things creative. 

Joana: Rian, how did this idea to make a show about lost things come about?

Rian: Hmm, I don’t fully know. I lost a blanket when I was little in NYC and thought there should be a place for the lost things to go. Then, once I stick with an idea, that’s what I do. My company, Fireside Productions wants to bring the stories being told around the fireside to audiences, give them an intimate heartfelt and funny experience, and lost things have stories that need to be told.

Joana: Ahhh, so what is your process in creating work then?

Rian: I run with this idea, then it’s like a parallel world. 80% of it comes through tipsy chats in bars, having to explain to whomever is listening what my show is about and I realise what it is as I discuss it. The other 20% is being a tormented artist sitting at a laptop, which isn’t quite as fun.

Joana: Who are your influences and who in the Melbourne live theatre scene have you got your eye on?

Rian: The Sisters Grimm, Declan Greene, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Melbourne wise, I’ve got my eye on PO PO MO CO, Born in a Taxi and I lovewhat The Very Good Looking Initiative are doing.

Joana: Where in Melbourne do you go to get inspired? Where makes you most feel like an artist?

Rian: The La Trobe reading room at the State Library. My first night in Melbourne after moving here (from Hong Kong/Perth) I was performing at White Night. In my 10-minute break, I ducked into the La Trobe Reading Room and saw a projection piece; it was my favourite thing I had even seen. It was like the gateway to all Melbourne art, made me want to not be a person in a world but the world inside a person.

Joana: That’s deep

Rian: Yeah, like my student loan.

Joana: What’s the best thing you have ever found?

Rian: A brief sense of purpose. 50 bucks. All of the items talked about in the show have been found.

Joana: Talk to me about the venue, Swamp?

Rian: Mine is the first show going up in this bar within a bar that’s down a laneway (so Melbourne) so there might be a few kinks, but I love that it is an alternative space that has a healthy door split. Sure, real estate is a way to make money in Melbourne, charging artists expensive venue hire, but that’s why Sydney has no soul. I think theatre popups are the way of the future.

Joana: Being not from here, have you ever got lost in Melbourne?

Rian: To be honest, the city is pretty well designed and I have a good sense of direction, but there was one time by the river in North Coburg. And Revolver [laughs].

Joana: Who hasn’t? Tell me about growing up in Hong Kong, and when did you decide that performing, producing and storytelling is what you want to do?

Rian: I wasn’t a typical drama kid, but I had an inspirational physical theatre teacher. Hong Kong is too organized for there to be art, art needs to come from chaos. I was only allowed to go to drama school (WAAPA) if I also got into law school, and kind of went along with it because I was good at it. There’s a difference in doing something because you are good at it and doing it because you know it’s what you want to do, choosing it to be your career. It wasn’t till I was managing at a nightclub on King Street that I realised that I needed to get out and make art.

Joana: And to finish, what is a nugget of wisdom you can impart to other independent artists out there?

Rian: Be dumb. That’s all.

Museum of Lost Things  
The Swamp at Bar Ampere, 16 Russell Place, Melbourne CBD
museumoflostthings.eventbrite.com.au