By Natalie Ristovski
The Theatreworks Early Career Artists Program serves as a supportive bridge for young creatives as they transition between tertiary art education and independent theatrical development. It stands out as one of Theatreworks’ “artist-first” led initiatives, featuring a co-productive model that encourages “risk-taking (and) new ideas” for artists as they embark on crafting their own new works. VOLITION, the culmination of a 6-month mentorship led by Theatreworks’ expert Artistic Associates Steven Mitchell-Wright and Belle Hansen, presents two such works in a double header centred around one overarching theme, written and created by two ensembles of newly minted graduates.
The first offering, The Volition Project (directed by Belle Hansen), is a cleverly staged mishmash of *insert name of any reality TV show here*. Kicking off with Theatreworks’ signature penchant for immersive and interactive theatrical play, audience members receive a handful of tokens upon arrival and are invited to “cast” their players from a collection of artists standing upon the stage. “Don’t worry about stereotypes,” our helpful host tells us, as we go on to very much worry about stereotypes for the next awkward 5 minutes of deliberation. The archetypes are all present: the Token Gay, the Villain, F*ckable, the Moral Compass…all clad in cleverly and subliminally designed costumes and makeup that likely ensures the audience plays the game exactly the way the creators intend. Pretty, heavily made-up Taytay reminiscent blonde? Villain. Token female person of colour? Moral Compass. Genderfluid fem-boy in corsetry with fake nails? Fckable. It is almost embarrassing how wonderfully predictable we all are in our assignations, but it is a brilliant little social experiment and a great way to kick off the show.
What follows is a quirky little absurdist gore-fest, as the elected cast are put through entertaining and somewhat sadistic challenges, with rather violent consequences for those who don’t make the cut. One by one, we meet the characters via live video-journal monologue, though we don’t get nearly enough time with them to form any real connections—which is probably just as well, they are drawn in painfully accurate homages to the very worst of Reality TV stereotypes, making it impossible to really like any of them (except Villain; I was totally rooting for you!).
It is unclear whether the artists are truly assigned their roles ‘on the night,’ but there are a few lip-sync moments with snippets of existing TV dialogue that suggest this might be the case—mainly because no one seems to know their lines, or at least how to lip sync to them effectively. Despite this, the overall effect is quite enjoyable. There is little substance to The Volition Project; it certainly does not say much beyond reminding us how vapid and annoying Reality TV characters and shows can be. However, as a Hunger Games/Battle Royale homage, it is a fun little splatter-fest romp, and the cast clearly enjoy presenting it. I would love to see this work refined into something with a little more depth beyond the gorenography and black comedy in the future. With the right balance, this could be something as poignant as it is entertaining.
The second piece of the evening, The Volition Experiment (mentored and facilitated by Steven Mitchell-Wright), bills itself as “a high-stakes exploration of personal and political dystopias.” Once again following the thread of Reality TV, this time in a post apocalyptic end-of-the-world setting, it follows six young people as they navigate abstract challenges while trying to maintain human connection, amidst a revolving door of contestants and the ever-gnawing grief for a world they claim to have lost.
The key elements of any good dystopian drama are all present: jaded yet determined youth, post-apocalyptic gas mask chic, some clever video-camera and projection work…yet for all its impressive setup and staging, the Volition Experiment fails to deliver either the stakes or the exploration that it promises.
Characters seem one-dimensional, dancing around a myriad of heavy themes (suicide, touch-deprivation and lack of connection, the nihilistic ennui of a generation born into war now facing the end of the world) much like children cosplaying someone else’s trauma. The cast try very hard to convince us of their thinly veiled despair…yet somehow that emotion never seems to land. Too long monologues, often shouted over a cacophony of activity and soundscapes, are bookended by singing and weird interpretive dance pieces (that I assume are supposed to symbolize the drudgery of going through the motions?) where everyone is out of sync…which may be on purpose but just comes across as under-rehearsed.
There are some good moments, but the cast’s tendency to talk over one another and the utterly woeful sound-mixing (please don’t have AV, monologues in microphones and acapella improv lines all going at the same volume simultaneously, it’s ableist and confusing) make it virtually impossible to connect to the heightened emotion that we’re presumably supposed to be feeling.
The subject matter is not new—a cocktail of old Dr Who and Black Mirror episodes with a sprinkling of Lynch—and the show does nothing to elevate or improve on any of these existing iterations. For those of us not just out of art school, there is nothing unique to see or feel, and the regurgitation of old ideas seems self-indulgent and disingenuous…the words ‘privilege playing at poignancy’ come to mind. I wanted very much to go on this journey with the characters (trauma-theatre is my absolute guilty pleasure) but I left feeling unconvinced and unmoved.
Perhaps if The Volition Project had not been so entertaining, the contrast to The Volition Experiment would have been less stark. Both pieces were relatively predictable and had rather palpable ‘student end of year showcase’ vibes, but where one embraced what had come before it and used it to its own advantage, the other seemed to get mired down in its own gravitas and self-importance. Theatreworks does share some responsibility for this – these are young artists, after all, and it is a fine line between giving the next generation a theatrical playground in which they can freely learn, grow, make mistakes and hopefully thrive, and fulfilling a wider responsibility to help them develop meaningful art in greater and more challenging ways to match our ever-evolving train-wreck of a world.
Perhaps I am just old and jaded and need to leave the kids to play. Or perhaps, when touting art as unique, high-stakes, raw and thought-provoking, one should ensure that they can deliver what they promise…or at least have some understanding of what the words mean.
But I digress, we all start somewhere. I live in hope that the journey forward holds more theatrical revelations, challenges and growth for all of these artists, and for Theatreworks as well. They certainly all have more than a little potential for it. Good luck, and don’t f*ck it up.
