Everywhen, The Substation, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Thursday October 9th 2019

Everywhen, The Substation, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Thursday October 9th 2019

"Everywhen" performed by Matthias Schack-Arnott at The Substation on Thursday October 9th 2019 was presented by the Melbourne International Arts Festival.

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 is more of a stream of consciousness.

The World Premier of “EVERYWHEN” at The Substation is a percussion work by Matthias Schack-Arnott with a difference.

Two banks of seating frame the two ends of the central staging area where there is a mobile hanging structure that looks like a carousel. The centre looks like a round water pond that later is revealed to be slate type tiles all in a circular formation.

The hanging mobile is a classic piece of 1970’s decoration that had lots of psychedelic designs. Baby carriages and cots have mobiles hanging above to entertain the child with different shapes and colours, while here we are the babies to be entertained.   Some even have different sounds. This is what the show immediately reminds me of.

The hanging mobile has about 10 or 12 arms, and at least three inner layers. There are many things hanging from the wires that some have an inbuilt raising and lowering mechanism that is similar to Venetian blinds cords.

There are at least four circles on the ground. One is the inner enclosure that looks like a water pond, a narrow path of what looks like tiles, a wider path, and then what appears to be shells that turn out to be clumps of sand.

The are so many interesting things hanging from the carousel type mobile structure:

Pipes, Shells, beads, Wooden and metal wind chimes, Cymbals, blocks, bells, foliage clumps, twigs and branches, light type boxes, contraptions with complex and indeterminate structures. Each of these items would be used to create a different sound.

The definition of "Everywhen" alludes to a portmanteau the words every and when.  According to one website the word is from the 17th Century and his hair and cream costume could be from that era.

Matthias Schack-Arnott enters bare footed and walks dragging a long metal pipe along the ground providing a scraping sound. This opening move sets the scene for what is to eventuate. Matthias walks at least four rotations around the main path, and then he begins to engage with the overhanging mobile carousel.

The carousel begins to turn as he continues to walk. Heck, I would be ill walking around in circles for nearly fifty minutes. At times he walks in the same direction as the carousel.  At other times he walks in the opposite direction. The carousel lowers to allow different items to drag along and hit the sand clumps or other items that Matthias places in their path thus producing a variety of sounds.

He plays with the different pieces to raise and lower items that will drag onto the sand clumps and spread them into longer strips. The sounds change with each item that touches the sand.

When he first stepped into the centre I thought he was going to get wet as it looked like a pond with cascading divides. The lighting changed and I realised these were in fact possibly slate tiles.

At one stage he overturns a few slate tiles and scrapes at them with different items including what appears to be small metal cymbals or wooden blocks. It could even be sandpaper blocks to give a tradesman sound. He taps with drums sticks.

He wiped the four cardinal points of sand to create a gap in each direction.  He placed a block with a metal bowl on top that would then be a target to be hit by one of the items rotating on the carousel.

When he lowered the two large cymbals they dragged along creating distinctly different sounds.

Towards the end he cuts the central inner circle of hanging wooden and metal blocks to create a xylophone type instrument in the centre. He plays with sticks. This builds as he continues and begins to also tap and grab different items swinging in the second central circle. He taps and grabs cymbals, pipes, blocks, beads, foliage that each provide different sounds and experiences both aurally and visually.

A large string of beads fell at one point, and later he moved them out of the main pathway. I am unsure if this was intended, but even so it gave another texture to the sounds and the visual experience. A small bell like cymbal fell from the outer ring at about a similar time to the large string of beads falling. I do not think this was intentional, but we will only know if someone else writes about it.

There is a background of soundscapes that give a beat to the work. The trains passing at Newport Station add another dimension to the work.

The show reminded me of a Dalcroze Eurythmics exercise where many performers use different body parts to create the different sections to the inner workings of a clock.

Fifty minutes was long enough duration as it was beginning to become tedious, even though it was hypnotic. This show was a great companion piece to “100 Pianos” at the same venue from the 2018i festival.

The programme is a disappointment with a lack of biographical information of Matthias Schack-Arnott. I also prefer that all Melbourne International Arts Festival programmes have the standard format. The year 2019 is missing from the programme.

Costume wise - he wore a different outfit to the promotional page in the festival brochure. He wore a cream top and trousers that suited the dark setting more than the promotional photo. Though, I do not like promotional photos that give you a visual representation and then it is different to what we are seeing. It could, and I stress, could be misleading as we booked this show thinking it was going to be similar to Safri Duo with their percussion works.

My partner felt it was too monotonous and was disappointed as he could see the work developing into the “Tubular Bells” style work.

Going back to the definition of "Everywhen" and my comment about the Dalcroze Eurythmics clock example, Matthias Schack-Arnott could very well be demonstrating that he is in all times.

I gave this show an 8/10