There was much anticipation in the bar area at 45downstairs Theatre. As we entered past the ticket box gorgeous girls gave us glow sticks, I’m thinking wtf but within minutes the doof music self-explained to some degree for me, my son is a doofer haha, then an orange Trainspotting armband with the seminal – ”Choose Life” – catch cry embossed as well.
I have never been to 45 before but I have sent and have had others do serious theatre and even opera reviews there so I’m thinking this is more an ‘establishment’ theatre space…how wrong one can be eh! It is a huge room and the way it was built, designed tonight fitted the bill to a tee!
There was definite excitement in the bar/entrance area, wooden pallets and a wall covered in ‘Trainspotting’, Scottish tagger, graffiti, obscenities scrawled around the whole space, the music’s incessant beat that I was thinking, being an old bugger, I expected music from the era…but then I thought ahhh, they are bridging drug consciousness. Most of the crowd and it was a huge crowd, packed house, were of that electronic musical age group and experience as was indicated by the music.
The blight of heroin affected my age group dramatically, I have known a number of people caught up with ‘Mother Superior’, smack.
As we entered the room, thankfully I sat in the second row and ‘in the round’ we are fed to our seating positions on 25cm depth platforms, inbuilt discomfort…awesome, quickly as possible whilst the ensemble dance wildly with double handed glow sticks (always wondered how that shit went down), it’s like old hippie dancing, shaking your body at someone but not touching but just flat out almost US callisthenics
exertion just doing one’s best moves…phew…just as it became tiring this cavalcade of pain and brutality began.
As some 200 audience builds the dancers/actors share the role of seating people, it still felt very wild but innocent enough…Haha…as we got closer to the start the demeanour of the dancers changed, facially more aggressive and looking and acting more ‘out of it’, their interaction got more tactile with the audience…front rowers dragged onto the dance floor, dives into the audience to hug and grapple….PLUR…I even got a hug with an a Scottish accent so broad in my right ear all I got was “I love your hat” …haha…I quickly retorted as he had my head in his forearm vice, “It’s hemp.”
Then it got WAY more physical, sitting there watching the way the performers basically abused the audience in ways some most would think improbable, and to see the way we just went with the flow was like, check this shit out…wow…NOOO not me, not me, not me…(mouth vomit)…He did WHAT!!!…aarrrggghhh, duck! Shit and other unknown liquids and semi solids are flying
Film could never do justice to the realities of this life these kids lived, this monster of a play, nay event, brings to life the realities of their pain and turmoil of the gutter existence that those that never had enough and were never going to get enough…and in this space, you are them, there is no definition between audience and performers.
To use the word outrageous is inadequate and belittling, brutally enlightening would be more apt. Having recently revisited the original film and seeing T2 recently I was wondering how this would play out…brilliantly!
Most of the main scenes from the original film are portrayed, this not a direct attempt to copy the film, more I think to take the guts out of it and display them sliced up raw in front of our eyes, a visceral exploration of the parallels between then and now.
What an entourage of power from the actors, the brutal physicality of this performance equates to the most amazing stunt work I have observed, seamless, unflinching demonstration of how life truly is and for us to be able to rationalize, well it’s not our problem.
And talk about freak the audience out! They seamlessly trowel their way through singularly and sometimes in groups, you never knew really where they were or what they were up to but it got wilder and to some tastes grosser, tits, and dicks out…personal privacy or sense of being but a viewer goes out the window when Begbie grabs your girlfriend’s head from the rear and starts dry rooting it.
It is an extremely heavy situation that is being played out daily in our major city’s suburbs due to our lack of sustainable policy within drug law.
Never have I experienced such a feeling in a room where no one felt safe, one young woman at a particularly unthinkably violent moment got up and quickly walked out obviously shaken…the rest of us transfixed and woven into this story of despair.
I felt for the 70% of sweet young things that came to see something a bit grungy from parent’s/grandparent’s days of youth. I must admit I spent a good deal of time watching the audience response to what was going on. Hilarious and fascinating, started with the girls OMGs then shock horror, resile, eww, things get wet and pooey but full honour to this typical Melbourne audience though. This was an interactive event and we also performed our part and to be honest this very clever crew tried to push every button, but we acquiesced to their performance…we were their meat props.
Bringing the analogy forward to represent the current chemical drug scene is an extraordinary gift to those that want to listen to this message. Very resonant in tone our current scourge, Ice.
Respect yourself.
Directors – Adam Spreadbury-Maher and Greg Esplin
Playwright – Harry Gibson
Based on the novel by Irvine Welsh
Lighting Designer – Clancy Flynn
Sound Designer – Tom Lishman
Original Producers – Kings Head Theatre and In Your Face Theatre
UK Producer – Seabright Productions
CAST
Rachael Anderson
Calum Barbour
Chris Dennis
Greg Esplin
Michael Lockerbie
Erin Marshall
Gavin Ross
Presented by Andrew Kay and Associates –
a Kings Head and In Your Face production
22 March – 13 April 2017
preview: Wednesday 22 March 7.30pm
opening night: Thursday 23 March 8pm
duration: 75 minutes
times:
Tuesday 7.30pm
Wednesday – Friday 8pm (excluding preview)
Saturday 7.30pm & 9.30pm
ticket price: $34 – $45
strictly for ages 16+
bookings:
03 9662 9966
book online
WARNING: this production contains nudity, coarse language, violent and sexual themes and imagery, heavy drug / needle use, haze effects, strobe lighting and simulated smoking.
