The Studio ensemble production, which opened this week, focuses on Gough Whitlam’s vision of making Albury-Wodonga a national growth centre.

Ensemble members interviewed more than 50 people, from teenagers to people in their 90s.

Much of the dialogue comes from those who had a close link to the Albury-Wodonga Development Corporation’s program to deliver Whitlam’s vision.

Wallis, HotHouse Theatre’s artistic director, says while the production covers key moments in Albury-Wodonga’s history, At The Hip is not a history lesson.

“It’s a really genuine representation, there’s nothing dry about it, it’s not a historical piece. It’s personal stories,” she says.

“The show is first-hand accounts of everything. It is what they felt like, what annoyed them. Great little side stories that they had.”

Cast members Paddy Brown, Georgie Currie, Matt Davidson, Clancy Hauser, Sarah Maloney and Christine Miles will channel the voices of a number of the interviewees including former journalist Jean Whitla, academic and historian Bruce Pennay, and former Development Corporation principal planner John Alker-Jones.

”We did over 50 interviews and they were long form interviews … We got go much audio, that has now being boiled down to a really tight one hour and 10 minute script,” Wallis says.

The performers wear earphones and repeat verbatim the words of the interviewees, replicating everything from accent and breathing to coughs and fumbles people make.

The headphone-verbatim technique was pioneered by acclaimed theatre-maker Roslyn Oades and the Studio ensemble performers have been training with her since the beginning of the year to get the method absolutely right.

Ms Oades says At The Hip is documentary theatre as a social portrait of contemporary Albury-Wodonga and a celebration of the community.

Wiradjuri elder Aunty Nancy Rooke provides a contemporary Aboriginal perspective recorded on the banks of the majestic Murray which joins the two cities like a zipper.