Theatre Review: The Well
*posted here* follow up from *link*
Well, where to start? I cannot begin to describe the craft behind Robert Reid’s three-year collaboration The Well with Monash University theatre students. Before walking through La Mama’s doors, you are warned you are stepping into a mobile experience where narrative continuity is overrated. Your concept of causality and purpose having weight in life will be challenged. However if you still choose to remain mainstream, to believe that there is a story, then it is definitely delivered with episodic dream-like logic. Chaos and confusion reigns centre stage, being set in a time where science explains that the earth’s magnetic poles have flipped, rendering time and space being essentially…fiction.
The Well presents interactive semi-interconnected incidents at impact when a man named Gareth sees and lives through a vision of himself hitting a girl with his car in the near future, only to later be buried neck deep in the desert. In the present day he is physically blinded whilst desperately seeking avenues to prevent the tragedy from unfolding. However, he is failing to convince friends and is simply searching for answers that don’t exist. As the Earth is spinning out of orbit anything can happen, and even stumbling into an unlikely companion of a man in a Pink Panther costume suddenly becomes completely reasonable. To orchestrate the collapse of causality on stage whilst physically involving the audience is a complicated task.
It is Reid’s ability to engage the audience, inviting their participation to contribute to the energy of the play that is integral to suspending audiences’ disbelief. You may stand, sit, lean on whatever you like, wherever you like. If you are in the way of actors or a manoeuvre they will gentle guide you to a safer vantage point or simply remind you, “It is not what you think”.
Have your eyes wide open and bodies ready for motion.
Stretch your mind, lose your time!
The Well, daringly invites you to be involved in the end of the world.
The Well is on at La Mama Theatre, Faraday St Carlton from Thursday September 13 – Sunday September 30.
Wed, Fri, Sun 8.30pm | Thu, Sat 6.30pm
Running time: 70 minutes
Well, where to start? I cannot begin to describe the craft behind Robert Reid’s three-year collaboration The Well with Monash University theatre students. Before walking through La Mama’s doors, you are warned you are stepping into a mobile experience where narrative continuity is overrated. Your concept of causality and purpose having weight in life will be challenged. However if you still choose to remain mainstream, to believe that there is a story, then it is definitely delivered with episodic dream-like logic. Chaos and confusion reigns centre stage, being set in a time where science explains that the earth’s magnetic poles have flipped, rendering time and space being essentially…fiction.
The Well presents interactive semi-interconnected incidents at impact when a man named Gareth sees and lives through a vision of himself hitting a girl with his car in the near future, only to later be buried neck deep in the desert. In the present day he is physically blinded whilst desperately seeking avenues to prevent the tragedy from unfolding. However, he is failing to convince friends and is simply searching for answers that don’t exist. As the Earth is spinning out of orbit anything can happen, and even stumbling into an unlikely companion of a man in a Pink Panther costume suddenly becomes completely reasonable. To orchestrate the collapse of causality on stage whilst physically involving the audience is a complicated task.
It is Reid’s ability to engage the audience, inviting their participation to contribute to the energy of the play that is integral to suspending audiences’ disbelief. You may stand, sit, lean on whatever you like, wherever you like. If you are in the way of actors or a manoeuvre they will gentle guide you to a safer vantage point or simply remind you, “It is not what you think”.
Have your eyes wide open and bodies ready for motion.
Stretch your mind, lose your time!
The Well, daringly invites you to be involved in the end of the world.
The Well is on at La Mama Theatre, Faraday St Carlton from Thursday September 13 – Sunday September 30.
Wed, Fri, Sun 8.30pm | Thu, Sat 6.30pm
Running time: 70 minutes
posted by Ritzy at 12:18 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home