"More Up A Tree", The Substation, Melbourne Festival, Saturday October 14th 2017
"More Up A Tree"was presented at The Substation, for the Melbourne Festival on Saturday October 14th 2017
For those new to my blog I write about the holistic experience of attending the theatre. I buy my own tickets. So if you want a re-telling of the story please refer to the links for further information or for further insights. Note, that I may provide different links for repeated main words or phrases. I write for my memories of what I have seen, and it is more of a stream of consciousness.
"More Up A Tree" was presented at The Substation, for the Melbourne Festival on Saturday October 14th 2017 and started ten minutes late. The programme was not in the style of the other 2017 Melbourne Festival programmes as it was black on white rather than the white on black image.
The Substation was well renovated as a gallery and arts space.
A pre-show announcement was made to alert us that the staging for tonight's performance had changed for the Melbourne Festival and could only be viewed from the front. This was not fair as it had been advertised that it was to be in a cube and should have been viewed from at least three sides. Not good from a logistical, organisational and marketing perspective.
It was very hard to see the action due to the style of stools and seating on offer. Audience members did move around as many struggled to see. I guess this was part of the concept to see what people would do under such circumstances.
The show appears to play with the concept of voyeurism: who is watching who? The dual mirror walls allowed us to watch the drummer and the dancer. Then sometimes the lighting would changed and we would be watching ourselves in the mirrors and not be able to see inside the cube.
The drummer played well and was better than the dancing. It was very difficult to see the dancer at times. The gestures built up over time and reminded me of a Barrie Kosky's "The Dubbyuk" presented at the Malthouse Theatre. What you could see reminded me of a ritual or shaking and gestures and lots of pacing back and forth. The pacing reminded me of Edina and Patsy from "Absolutely Fabulous" on a shopping excursion frantically seeking out their next purchase.
At time the dancing had Merce Cunningham style moves with angular arms and epaulement. It was also a little like Nijinksy's "Le Apres mini d'un Faune"
Yes the dancer required stamina and appeared to be going mad in the cramped space of the cube. To me it was like the word of the day: Exclosure (to keep wild animals out) as the mirrored walls allowed the audience to be caged and not allowed entry into the cube. Thankfully too! It gave the audience an opportunity to change positions from the uncomfortable stools to stand and move about.
As audience members, we were voyeurs watching the watchers. The show reminded me of the zoo episode from the "Twilight Zone" where you enter the zoo and end up as a caged human. It was more interesting watching the Asian lady in the back row on her mobile phone for most of the fifty minutes. Well, for the first time the use of mobile phones allowed a distraction from the show. About five or six people just had to video the show at times - I guess they needed proof they had attended a show about voyeurs and being watched. I was surprised to not see anyone taking "selfies" of them watching the show.
"More Up A Tree" was the type of show that used to have some audiences at the Melbourne Festival scream abuse or make vocal comments as they exited the theatre. A few people left and then I realised they went to get a drink to quench their fifty minutes of voyeurism.
There was a show a few years ago at the 2012 Melbourne Festival where children were observed inside a space that we could see into but they could not see out of. The show, "Before Your Very Eyes" by Gob Squad was a much more interesting and challenging theatre than "More Up A Tree".
"More Up A Tree" was presented at The Substation, for the Melbourne Festival on Saturday October 14th 2017.
I could not see this show running on Broadway!
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