When Life Gives You Tannins
Anna Thomas has gone and debunked the age old adage “You will never find happiness at the bottom of an empty bottle.” This wine mum aficionado has creatively found a way to decant her life story through a metaphorical wine tasting and it is genuinely an intriguing journey to watch unfold. Growing up in the Mid North of rural South Australia, Anna Thomas wished to click the heels of her RM Williams boots and be jettisoned away to stardom in Broadway. Her love of Shakespeare and the arts made her strive to shine above the wheat belt. Unfortunately, the country only offered Anna “traditional” lines of employment. She had the restrictive choice of being a hairdresser, receptionist or dental assistant. This may have been the critical moment where Anna discovered that the farmer only wants a wife, not a woman careerist. Anna found her success within the field of Occupational Therapy, she quickly climbed the corporate ladder and was raking in a six figure salary. Working inside a male dominated workforce meant that she constantly had to outperform in order to stand out. “Every time I stepped on a plane for someone else, I was potentially losing something for my family,” she said. “I wasn’t getting anything out of it. All I felt was pain and regret.” Quitting her job, forced Anna to change the course of her future. She found herself fumbling into a new career, where she had little to no experience. Drawing back on her passion for acting, Anna assumed the role of a wine tour guide and effectively improvise her way through numerous cellar door tastings. This experience, lead Anna to some sort of wine epiphany. Each time she tried a new type of wine, she found it resonated with who she was and the path of her life. “Each new winery I visited, I found myself in a new frame of mind.” “There is a particular red wine that people don’t like to drink. I felt a connection to it through the sense of what it’s like not to always be popular. It actually has numerous characteristics, if you look over the stigma behind it.” Many of us gain solace in a bottle of red because it gets us inebriated. What makes Anna so unique is how she has drawn inspiration out of wine. It has reacquainted her with a lost love for art and in some ways has been therapeutic in the sense that she is now able to face her biggest vulnerabilities through her show. Looking for Viti-CULTURE? Come check out How To Drink Wine Like A Wanker, which is on every weekend at the Fringe.
