Photo by Jon Green
In a perfectly meshed but aptly jarring, multi-level, multi-media greyscale jigsaw of almost cinematic imagery, dramatised by extraordinary quasi-Asian puppetry, Visual Designer Fleur Elise Noble and Audio-visual Technician Mia Holton together demonstrate their powerful artistry in this polished collaboration between the Perth Theatre Company (PTC) and the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA).
Crumpled white paper screens and partitions perform a multiplicity of dynamic roles in this production as they receive and transmit projected apocalyptic black-white-grey images behind and around the three main human actors onstage; the paper is itself another actor, indeed many actors at once. Onstage the set is literally littered with paper rubble. Designer Noble both creates and destroys her own set with savage fury, like some kind of installation artwork.
The projected puppetry, combined with animation, is quite astounding. Sometimes the totality of the Rubble experience recalls a Japanese Noh drama, other times it is reminiscent of a snow-driven Russian cinematic epic by Eisenstein.
The nutshelled theme is women in war, anywhere, their plight and their resilience. The underpinning sub-text is the way foreign correspondents’ reports of foreign horrors strike many of us via screens in our comfortable living rooms (a set actually revealed right at the end of this production), where we can turn them off whenever our comfort level is crossed. Not so for the women barricaded by conflict, as portrayed with considerable physical empathy by actors Mei Saraswati, Tina Torabi and Mikala Westall playing ‘Girls 1, 2 and 3’.
Punctuating and informing the imagery is the jagged soundscape created by the sure hand of experienced sound designer, Joe Lui. Quite a few of his simulated ‘bombs’ had the gasping audience leaping out of their seats.
The inspiration for this production directed by PTC’s accomplished Artistic Director Melissa Cantwell has been Walkley Award-winning journalist and Perth resident Sophie McNeill’s reporting (for SBS’ Dateline and now ABC’s Foreign Correspondent) from conflict zones around the world, from Afghanistan to Thailand and Mexico.
Rating: 4½ out of 5 stars
From the Rubble
Presented by Perth Theatre Company with Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
Director: Melissa Cantwell
Inspiration: Sophie McNeill
Visual Design: Fleur Elise Noble
Assistant Director: Ian Sinclair
Composers: Mei Saraswati & Joe Lui
Sound Designer: Joe Lui
Audio-visual Technician: Mia Holton
Stage Manager: Hugo Aguilar Lopez
Performers: Mei Saraswati, Tina Torabi, Mikala Westall​
PICA Performance Space, Cultural Centre, Perth
16–28 March 2015
