Cowkeepers – a 2025 Brisbane Anywhere Festival short play

Tagline

Buttercup and Venus: Cowkeepers Extraordinaire – A slightly absurd surreal cowmedy about ageing dairy cows

Credit: Georgina Greenhill

Synopsis

Buttercup and Venus: Cowkeepers Extraordinaire is a slightly absurd short play about the loss of usefulness, and the meaning of family. In it, ageing dairy cows Buttercup and Venus are Cowkeepers; housekeepers and surrogate parents, to 17-year-old Charlie and eleven-year-old Maxime. In this alternative world dairy cows are bonded with a child from birth to the age of 18. As Charlie is about to turn 18 and announces that he isn’t going to university, Venus must look for another job with accommodation or risk homelessness. Maxime and Charlie’s parents are workaholics who are never at home and only communicate with the Cowkeepers and children through messages.

2025 Brisbane Anywhere Festival

The 2025 Brisbane Anywhere Festival ran from 17 July – 3 August.

The Yeronga Paint Factory was the festival hub on the last weekend of the festival – Friday 1 August to Sunday 3 August. The address is 115 Hyde Road, Yeronga.

Opening Night: 6:00pm, Friday 1 August with performances at 4:00pm on Saturday, 2 August and 4:00pm, Sunday 3 August.

Auslan Interpreters were at all three performances

Acknowledgment

Cowkeepers is proudly funded by the Creative Sparks Grant Program.

The Creative Sparks Program is an initiative of Brisbane City Council in partnership with the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.

Key Creatives

I was proud to collaborate with Production Designer, Georgina Greenhill and Graphic Designer, Gillian Worrall on the production of Buttercup and Venus: Cowkeepers Extraordinaire.

My inspiration

My idea for the short play Buttercup and Venus: Cowkeepers Extraordinaire, about ageing dairy cows, Buttercup and Venus was inspired by a convergence of thoughts. These include my current PhD research into the representation of older women on screen, my experience as a parent to a teenager, my work as an Au Pair in Paris, and my chore from the age of eleven milking our jersey cow Venus.

Image: Georgina Greenhill and Joanne Tindale

Creating change

My short play highlights the connectivity between animals and humans and the challenges facing older women in society and the workforce. Thanks Anywhere Festival and the Creative Sparks Grant for supporting my idea.