_Collaboration with Platform 27 2006 and 2007
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Lucky Town In 2006 and 2007 I worked with Platform 27 to develop Lucky Town, a seminal work that brought together a complex analysis of contemporary Australian politics with the development of an equally conceptually and practically challenging technical environment - and that's saying nothing about the development of the written and physical languages! |
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Images: Heidrun Löhr
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Plaform 27 is a theatre company that thrives in the darker & mossy recesses of Australian artistic and cultural fringes, embodying the saying “High Art for Low Lives”. The company’s objectives are to create new and exciting performances, challenge social and theatrical boundaries, explore social and cultural issues, promote and illustrate the contribution made by Non-English-Speaking-Background artists to contemporary Australian performance and to introduce theatre to a wider audience. Richard Lagarto, 2012
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Lucky Town
Using Ghassan Hage’s essay The Politics of Australian Fundamentalism: Reflections on the rule of Ayatollah Johnny (Arena: No. 51, January 2001) as a starting point, we developed a central scenario focussing on a ‘family’ living in an absurd, yet all-too-familiar world. One day a bed is delivered and while the family insist they have not ordered and can not afford the bed, they are convinced by the delivery person that they should take it and sort things out later. The bed is rather large and doesn’t fit very well in their small house and they decide it is more convenient to sleep on it than try to store it, though they worry it could belong to someone else or even be stolen property! When they try to sort out the mess, neither the government nor the company are any help – they have no record of a bed. The powers-that-be become suspicious of this family who are inconveniently complaining about their good fortune. However, when the paperwork finally catches up, the company send in the officers of the law and the family are interviewed and punished. They are now classified as ‘inconvenient’ and are forced into bankruptcy as they are not allowed to work. They are also forced to keep the bed as it is illegal to sell a ‘used’ bed. To make ends meet they decide to rent out their house and bed to another family while living underneath the bed and trying to live happily ever after. Within this scenario, the group played with former Australian Prime Minister, John Howard’s, ‘value politic’ without entering into and strengthening his rhetoric. We poked at the accidental flip-side of aspiration and noted that the core without the rest of the apple attached is not worth eating. We also explored the complexity of the issues and complicity of society by having the members of the family work as the security guard, guard dog, delivery person and propagandist who oppress the family in several different ways. This work is a world full of commercial propaganda disguised as intrusive lifestyle programs on television, where choice is the ultimate goal and the ultimate lie. The house is a four-scrim (translucent) box 600mm off the ground, where the family ‘call’, ‘think’ or ‘dream’ up various environments and objects to interact with. The house responds to movement and mood, while also interrupting from time to time with propaganda. The audience is in ‘promenade’ and kept active by a continual focus-shifting of performance and media elements. In creating a permeable and mutable environment, the notions of inside/outside, passive/active, victim/victor, individual/society are continually disrupted and questioned. Unfortunately, the political climate in Australia shifted before this work could be fully produced. |