Tender and explosive, Roller Coaster is a new music theatre production inspired by true stories of Gold Coast roller skaters, accompanied by a live band and a tight team of musicians and performers.

Executive Director Kate Baggerson said they overcame covid disruptions to finally bring the show to life, transforming the HOTA outdoor stage into a high octane roller skating rink.

“It was a totally different show at the end of 2019 and 2020 when we first started writing it,” Baggerson said.

“It had come from a particular individual in the community who had shared her story with one of our long-term collaborators. And her story was really about how skating had been her currency to move through some very difficult times in her life.

“Her whole world had fallen apart essentially. And she doesn’t mind me telling this story, but her marriage was having a hard time and her teenage kids hated her. And she had to step away from roller derby. And then she was driving home one day and her house was burning down.

“She called her skates, her antidepressants – that was all she had left.

“And she had to rebuild her relationships with her partner, with her kids, with her life, with her relationship with roller skating. And it was such a – you know – you can’t script this stuff. Life is just full of these incredibly powerful stories.

“So we started to write music about that and dive into those universal truths of what that story had to say. Things burning down around you and needing to rebuild your life and coming up against obstacles, which we can all relate to.”

Presented as part of the Bleach Festival for three performances only from August 3 to 5, this action-packed rock and roll roller-skating spectacle, celebrates the rough and tumble ride of life on wheels.

“We spent seven days writing music with roller derby skaters, with park skaters, young people who skate in bowls and throw themselves against concrete on their roller skates, which is pretty wild,” she said.

“We found those similar universal truths of how this community of rollerskating had brought people together, but how it also was a mechanism, a very physical mechanism to move through difficult things.

“So we follow a woman in her mid forties, a teenager, and a roller derby skater and their ups and downs of life through the course of the show.”

More than 100 skaters are taking part in the production from all over south-east Queensland.

“Sometimes this work, I guess is difficult to describe because it really is a bit of a hybrid,” Baggerson said.

“In this kind of current economic climate, but also current cultural environment, there’s a lot to compete with. And something like this I think is a really unique night out.”