Image: supplied.
It’s difficult to describe POINT8SIX but here goes.
It’s a sort of Red Dwarf, Blade Runner, Mighty Boosh, Hunter S. Thompson mashup. Throw in a little noir-detective, a cleverly crafted non-sequitur script and great homage to The Three Stooges and George Orwell and you start to get an idea of what this show is all about. It has something to do with time travel, that much is certain, and a dystopian future. There is a critical event, something that must be changed, or not. One can’t really be sure, but it somehow still makes sense. This is part of what makes this production one that can genuinely be described as innovative and unique.
The non-sequitur nature of Tim Wotherspoon’s script may not be to everyone’s taste, but even those who deplore abstraction will have to be impressed with his ability to sustain the style and tempo. He’s created a language all his own where meaning is often not in the words themselves but it’s never unclear what is actually being said. This anarchic disregard for structure is part of what gives POINT8SIX is manic, futuristic texture and allows the space for wonderfully weird characters of different times, spaces and human compositions to hold their own. The key to this are the gaps Wotherspoon is able to create in what his characters say. Make the gaps too small and the words feel clumsy and half-hearted. Make them too large and all meaning is lost. But like a Harley Quin esque Goldilocks, Wotherspoon gets it just right and performs some incredible linguistic hijinks.
Wotherspoon is supported by an excellent ensemble cast. The bumbling ‘Cell-Danger’, sister dissidents who may or may not be technologically enhanced, an East German caricature named Ernst, and Michelle Dubois styled accomplice to the Mad Scientist. POINT8SIX has the feeling of a production whose every element has been carefully thought out. From characters moving in and out of the action, to the soundtrack of old radio samples and Bowie classics. It’s staged with an efficacy and simplicity that demonstrates the experience and skill of the production team, led by director Kirsten von Bibra.
All this creates the feeling of being stuck inside a malfunctioning piece of technology, whether virtual reality holodeck or human brain. The quick changes, pace and absurdist language give real effect to a very modern way of thinking where there is always something to distract and multiple thoughts cascade into one another before any are completed. Despite this, Wotherspoon and co. manage to bring it all together in the end, merging the barrier between reality and fantasy, internal and external, performer and audience, into something that was not a conclusion but the most fitting and satisfying of endings. POINT8SIX is a rare bit of bizarro brilliance that will leave you wondering who stole the butter and put it in your shoe.
Rating: 4.5 stars out 5
POINT8SIX
by Tim Wotherspoon
La Mama Theatre
10 – 21 February 2016
