Image: blueroom.org.au
Full of politics, pop music, passionate movement, highly stylised drama and fantastic costumes, All That Glitters from The Last Great Hunt explores the role of theatre in our lives and its purpose in effecting tangible change.
The nested set of narratives opens with a surprising dance routine, introducing the four performers in their golden jumpsuit onesies, with beglittered faces and extraordinary hairstyles. Baring more than a passing resemblance to a second-rate game show, Hunter Jeffrey’s bright smiles, the bubbling exuberance of Hunter Arielle and the shiny despair of Hunter Adriane, all combine to highlight the absurdity of ‘playwright’ Hunter Chris’ earnestness, determined to make a difference and save lives through the brilliance of this performance.
Within the performance proper, Irene (Arielle Gray) takes a stand for her conscience, seeking to free the brown people locked in her neighbours’ back shed and incurring the wrath of society in the process. Rebelling against the police-ordered ’empathy management’ course, she rejects the prevailing ideals of detachment and comfortable living to strike a blow for freedom for brown people, discovering her vocation as ‘redeemer’ in the process.
While the narrative closes with an idealistic triumph, returning to the performers finds Hunter Chris distraught that his real time counter of ‘lives saved’ has not shifted from ‘0’ through his play. He insists on performing an alternate ending, and then another, as he doggedly pursues a positive outcome. Finally, as he collapses, dishevelled and exhausted from a bout of frenzied tapdancing, his fellow Hunters share some truths about life, theatre and activism.
Director Gita Bezard embraces the potential of an intriguing, yet entertaining structure, allowing the performers to develop various approaches to discuss their political ideology and the issue of Australia’s current policies regarding asylum seekers. The stand up introduction and direct interaction with the audience lend themselves nicely to an upbeat lecture on human rights, while the play within the play provides opportunities for stylised drama, surreal physical encounters, witty motifs and triumphant tableaux.
The script features some beautifully vacuous dialogue in the dinner party interactions between two couples, reminiscent of the superficial socially acceptable conversations of Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451. Chris Isaacs’ performance of the theatre maker, determined to make a difference, is physically devastating, full of desperate pathos. Gray develops the role of Irene, through each of the various iterations of the play, and holds a strong focus on stage. Jeffrey Jay Fowler and Adriane Daff strongly support with a variety of roles, and later by swapping roles.
Tessa Darcey’s stage setting is gaudily simple, with shiny strips of tinsel surrounding the stage, and Joe Lui’s sound and lighting are integral to setting the sense of place as well as the mood of specific scenes. The soundtrack is heroic, moving from profound silence, to Taylor Swift explosions of pop, to grand swellings to accompany declarative speechifying.
The Last Great Hunt again prove their versatility, demonstrating their proficiency at creating entertaining performance and presenting thought-provoking material in an accessible yet substantial fashion. All That Glitters is full of pop music and political protest but also the excitement of creative developments in Perth’s independent theatre sector.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
All That Glitters
Presented by The Blue Room Theatre and The Last Great Hunt
Director: Gita Bezard
Producer: Sarah Weber
Devisors: Gita Bezard, Adriane Daff, Jeffrey Jay Fowler, Arielle Gray, Chris Isaacs and Kathryn Osborne
Set & Costume Designer: Tessa Darcey
Lighting & Sound Designer: Joe Lui
Stage Manager: Liz Newell
Performed by Adriane Daff, Jeffrey Jay Fowler, Arielle Gray and Chris Isaacs
The Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, Northbridge
11-29 August 2015
