This review was originally published on 'The Public Reviews".
‘To share a horrible story is important’. These words, delivered with a question mark by an actor, were originally made by one of the several family and friends of missing persons who shared their experiences with Sydney based version 1.0’s The Disappearances Project.
These reflections are delivered statically in fractured statements by the two performers and provide a glimpse into the myriad of emotions and experiences of those who are affected when a person goes missing.
These reflections are delivered statically in fractured statements by the two performers and provide a glimpse into the myriad of emotions and experiences of those who are affected when a person goes missing.
Like the accompanying film backdrop, projecting a seemingly endless pan of an anonymous town, free of a single inhabitant, the content of The Disappearances Project is indeed bleak and beautiful. Bleak in its steadfast commitment to illustrating the hardship of each person’s experiences and beautiful in its simple unadorned delivery by its two performers Irving Gregory, who co-devised the show and Yana Taylor who co-devised, co-directed and co-conceived the project.
Many of the lines spoken in the show could have come from grieving relatives of the dead, but it’s the other types of heartaches beyond finite loss that the show explores; the frustrations at bureaucracy, the unwavering sense of hope, the constant uncertainty, the disappointment in friends and their comically misguided reactions. One line, repeated by a number of participants; ‘It’s not illegal to go missing’ brought home the illogicality of enforcing missing persons rights whilst ignoring the rights of those who are left behind to deal with the void they have left. It is these people at the heart of the show and the severed bond that remains that the company attempt to illustrate.
Verbatim theatre provides an opportunity for people to share their stories authentically and the manner of delivery, largely motionless and free from affectation felt as unadorned and straight from the source as it could be. The performances, combined with the anonymous and broken dialogue and disconcertingly minimal soundtrack from Paul Prestipino produce a distancing effect which makes for hard but thought provoking viewing. Yet, with 250,000 people going missing each year in the UK, we are lucky that this engaging ensemble, in this European premiere, have brought these stories to our attention, for as they point out, they may be horrible but they are important and need to be told.
No comments:
Post a Comment