Directed by Katie Cawthorne
Presented by Canberra Youth Theatre
Ralph Wilson Theatre, Gorman Arts Centre, July 21st to 24th 2016
Reviewed by Bill Stephens
An unusual
collaboration between Canberra Youth Theatre and Canberra Dance Theatre’s GOLD
Troupe has resulted in a compelling, often touching, exploration of the
differences in perceptions between youth and old age.
Working with
a cast of ten 13 to 15 year old Canberra Youth Theatre members, and six 65 to 80 year old members of the GOLD troupe,
director Katie Cawthorne has devised a visually arresting, one-hour work, to explores
concepts of love, death, anxiety and family.
 |
| The Verbatim Project cast. |
The setting
is simple - a large black box studio space and sixteen bright yellow chairs.
The dialogue is the thoughts of the cast, gathered utilising a variety of
verbatim theatre techniques. Some dialogue is spoken live during the performance;
some is played as recorded voice-overs, or edited video images recorded by the
cast over the three month rehearsal period.
Throughout
the piece the cast arrange and re-arrange the chairs, interact with each other,
swap voices and ages, and perform tightly choreographed sequences to accompany
their comments on a range of subjects related to the passage of life. Striking
mood lighting, and at one stage, a gentle shower of white feathers, compliment
the movement to provide a constant flow of striking images to accompany the
dialogue.
During one
sequence the younger cast members annunciate observations on happiness and
love, recorded previously by the older cast, and vice-versa. The result is
curiously revealing as well as amusing. In another, cast members swap chairs,
and react to unconscious body contact. Perhaps the most powerful sequence involved
one of the cast , born in 1935, sharing poignant recollections of her response
to learning that her brother was fighting in the war as a bomber pilot,
followed immediately by the recollections of a young cast member, born in 2001,
of her father fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The spoken
word sequences are delivered with admirable clarity and confidence throughout and
supported by excellent technical elements to produce a memorable and thought-
provoking theatrical experience.
This review first published in CITY NEWS digital edition on 22nd July 2016.
