Back to Back Theatre, renowned for their innovative and thought-provoking work, presents their latest piece exploring the complexities of workplace culture and power dynamics.
It begins with a trigger warning. But just as you expect a brief, predictable list of theatrical content liable to offend, actor Simon Laherty delivers an extensive laundry list. There’s something for everyone – aside from strobe lighting and herbal cigarettes. And by the time he soberly warns of “hand gestures” and “references to bad events”, there is much mirth in the room, and it’s apparent expectations have been punctured.
For almost four decades, Back to Back Theatre has been doing just that. It’s made them one of our most lauded theatre companies internationally. To the Ibsen Award in Oslo in 2022 – the so-called Nobel Prize for theatre – it added the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre in Venice last year. So, the latest work from the Geelong-based company of neurodiverse and disabled performers arrives in Sydney with great expectations. This time, their focus is on workplace culture and power dynamics. The striking, abstract set is dominated by an egg-shaped video screen of storm clouds. Beneath this, the stage is filled with skeletal metal poles, the armature of a building. Some assembly is required.Three performers arrive, apparently to do just that. Although one of them flops himself into a huge inflatable pink flamingo from where he lives his best life while the two female colleagues do all the work. Sarah Mainwaring is a vulnerable, gentle presence, Bron Batten a confident, energetic figure. And it’s the dynamic between the two women that, after a slow start, ignites the piece. Batten soon manipulates Mainwaring, patronising her co-worker with HR gobbledegook of the “help me to help you” kind, even as she ignores Mainwaring’s pleas for assistance. Batten spouts the language of inclusion and diversity, even as she weaponises it. Yet when she turns her attention to a slothful Scott Price and deflates his flamingo, it’s hard not to approve.At the side of the stage, Laherty blends middle-management wastrel with sag
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