Aussie entertainment duo bring smiles and joy to aged care residents – without overblown budgets or digital resources, everyday aussies are making a true impact

Two Aussie women have put together a live-show for seniors and have been making a splash all across NSW. Through a grant from Create NSW, Marina Lee-Warner and Julie Joy have brought a professional entertainment offering brimming with heart, cheekiness and connection. While the show has only been on the road for a few months, the team are already finding themselves booked out. Advocates say there’s a clear reason for that, demand for quality and heart-felt live entertainment for seniors is at an all-time high and everything should be done to fund and support professionals to step into this space.

As for Lee-Warner and Joy’s show, the reviews are in, from both seniors and provider leadership. It’s a smash hit. Far from lamenting about being booked out, experts and advocates are encouraged by the resonance of this show and what it indicates, there is an opportunity from both public and private sectors to fund and support grass-roots shows. Funding reform must pivot to recognise the powerful results of joy and increased well-being live-entertainment can bring to the thousands of seniors in Australia’s aged care.

The two teabags

Dubbed “The Two Teabags”, Lee-Warner and Joy have created a “riotously funny” show that “will be stopping by your centre for smoko soon!” Lee-Warner, known around her local area, the NSW Upper Hunter, as ‘Sparkles the Clown’, may have stepped into her most rewarding role yet.

The show, chock-a-block full of a “medley of Australiana references” is crossing the Upper Hunter and about to head into central NSW. Both entertainers have poured their creativity and spunk into this show, particularly due to who its audience is. Aimed squarely at seniors, the play was intentionally crafted to be accessible and enjoyable to all residents, including those with neurological challenges.

Apart from laughs and engagement, the scope of the play is ambitious and all the more vital for it, the duo wanted to heal and help in a very real way. Joy shared with the ABC that their act aims for depth of support, “it’s enabling conversation, reminiscence, connection”.

“It’s people turning to the person beside them, who might be from a completely different house or floor in a facility, and saying, ‘Did you have one of those?’ or, ‘I remember that.'”

Caitlyn Easey, a residential manager at HammondCare in Scone, said after seeing one of the first performances, “it’s just wonderful — it just brings so much joy for them”.

“I think those references back to their generation is what’s really special about it and quite different to other things we’ve had before.”

Tackling loneliness

Speaking to the ABC, Lee-Warner says, “I’ve been very moved by this epidemic of loneliness.”

“So just to bring in that fun and joy and a bit of human touch and connection, I think is really important.”

Stepping into character as Marj and Shirl, the ‘two teabags’ have been causing a riot of laughs with seniors who deserve a good chuckle. With 40% of seniors not receiving visitors during their time in RAC, it’s never been more critical to bring connection and joy to humans who need and crave it. 

As their tea trolleys “full of fun, games, music and frivolity” have rolled into centre common rooms, Lee-Warner and Joy have been moved by how happy and charmed their audience has been and how much they have been embraced.

The duo have framed their show as bringing joy and healing through “warmth and hilarity…to entertain residents through music, games, movement and meaningful engagement.” The show revolves around Marj, “a cleaner and former country showgirl” and Shirl, “a tea lady ever so slightly rough around the edges but with a heart of gold”, characters with pluck, layers and hopes, just like their audience. 

The team wanted to bring the world of entertainment to the residents and instead of anything fantastical, the show starts by “taking place as everyone enjoys a well-earned ‘smoko’ following a gruelling morning of tidying up after a party in one of the rooms”, suffice to say, for the residents who have had the joy of seeing one of the shows, the “outrageous discoveries revealed” have had many in stitches.

Joy says, “”it was important to find props that [the residents] could relate to … in a sense the play was built around the props,” Joy said.

“I was fixated on the rabbit trap — that had to be in it,” Lee-Warner pipes up.

“I said, ‘Jules, how do we build a rabbit trap into the storyline?’

With good-naturedly surprise, the duo share with much mirth, “everybody joins in to debate what’s the best way to cook a rabbit.”

Connection

The show shows its heart in how it has been thoughtfully constructed. Joy shares, “the show evolved from what was initially workshopped as just a series of games and activities into a storyline with the music and games built in.”

She also shares that the “mood-enhancing quality” of singing simply meant it had to be an integral part of the play.

“[Singing] It forms so many different connections in the brain that you could have somebody who cannot speak a sentence, but they can sing a song”.

Lee-Warner and Joy created the show not only to entertain and bring joy, but also to bring connection through proximity. After the 45-minute show concludes, the two wanted to make sure there was time for the residents to approach them and have a chat.

Each performance so far has been followed by this “relaxed meet and greet” but duo wanted to go further and bring in tactile engagement. On top of a scheduled show of jokes and ‘shenanigans’, and post-show chat, the duo have brought along a trove of nick-nacks and vintage memorabilia that would spark recognition for many of the residents and their childhood in Australia.

The after-show time has also been to “give residents the chance to browse the collection of memorabilia” and its been readily embraced by audiences. The creative team wanted a time of connection and relationship, “bound to spark conversation and stories of lives well lived.”

Human-centred entertainment

Psychologists and neurological scientists are unanimous, human-centred connection and relationship is not only what humans need for healthy lives, it’s the best way to help heal loneliness and mental health challenges in the reality of aged care facilities. Screens and other artificial means simply don’t hold up in terms of scientifically backed impact. 

For both Lee-Warner and Joy, the opportunity to bring their rollicking fun time to the centres, to help with the “loneliness epidemic” among Australia’s seniors was a no-brainer. 

Lee-Warner has a working past of diversional therapy in aged care and geriatric acute care hospital wards, while also having been professionally active in theatre, film and television. Joy has worked extensively in aged care, and also runs a business bringing music and movement programs to aged care homes within the Hunter Valley area in NSW.

Both bring a heart, as well as prolific entertaining prowess, to this show that has profoundly met human and sector need. In the face of continued proven results, advocates are calling for increased funding to bring exactly this type of live entertainment, and it’s verified impact to improve health outcomes for seniors, to facilities across the nation.

It is evident that experienced and skillful performance, and a passion to bring meaningful joy to the community, has made a powerful impact to the lives and well-being of the hundreds of seniors that have not only witnessed but participated in the show. 

Funding reform

The lessons and reform pivoting evidence from the Two Teabags show doesn’t stop there, advocates and provider leadership say. Particularly persuasive, for government funding to support entertainers entering live-show work in aged care, both members of the duo are quick to highlight how they are thriving in this work, as well as its impact on front-line staff, there is an overarching mood lift for all.

In an important encouragement to other entertainers to join them in having a jovial and rollicking time with seniors in RAC, both extol the energising joy they have found in performing to these audiences.

Lee-Warner shares, “we are just loving it.”

“If I could do this for the rest of my life, I’d be very happy.”

The show has showcased what many provider staff and advocates have called for, quality and heart-felt human-led live-entertainment is an integral part of aged care’s care offering. Seniors in RAC facilities deserve and profoundly thrive from deep belly-laughs from professionals with heart.