Areté: Gamma

Based on a different theme each year, Areté: Gamma is the third festival offering from the vivid company Dionysus Theatre, a company that always engenders thoughtful debate and discussion in their works.

Aretéis an innovative performance and visual arts festival, where all work presented responds to a specific theme.  The 2017 theme - ‘Science is a way of thinking, much more than it is a body of knowledge’ - Carl Sagan

There is a display of visual art from Artists in Residence – oil on glass (Bryce Flint) and photography (Kellie Lindemann) allows the audience to begin to process the theme, already manifesting the audience’s views and philosophies to arise.

The visual art continues into the theatre with the signature set piece – The Pillar of Wisdom.  Created by Brett Hicks, the pillar is a representation of the universe, swirling vast twinkling of celestial bodies all singular, yet confined to a cylinder, just as Carl Sagan suggests in his 1994 speech “Pale Blue Dot”.

On the idea of confinement and isolation, The Pythia, offer up two movement pieces to explore unending space within vast seclusion where borders and divisions are created. Metaphorically and physically the movement pieces, choreographed by Emma Sproule, draw upon the tightness of space and the immensity within the choice of Sagan’s speech and Miyake’s Lilies of the Valley. Catherine Baker is the beautiful ‘mote of dust suspended on a sunbeam’ and Lilly Werner perfectly displays how we can search for genuine connection in a world of social media overloads and hidden feelings of inadequacies.

Gretel Sharp, Solo Artist in Residence, suggests six uniquely different interpretations on the topic, each individual episode written and delivered with conviction and artistry. Sharp is a dynamic all-round performer, a sheer talent bursting off the stage.

Each of the four one-act plays, written and directed by established and emerging playwrights and directors, show vastly different interpretations on the theme.

Adam & Eveis a tale of a militant world where women are ‘upgraded’ to produce the government’s ideas of perfect specimens of humanity. Directed by Gemma Sylvester-Keech, this script traverses how science can be our savior, but also our enemy. We feel for Ellen Kiley’s character as she strives so hard for her own life and that of her partner.

The Half-Life of Truth takes a different turn into the future - where we are reliant on computers to make psychological decisions  - could this be limiting or more precise? Linda O’Grady as a computer psychologist portrays the role with composure and poise.

A Methodenvelops the audience with four existentialist versions of the same truths. Neither discussing together, nor apart, director Jett Thomas has traversed a tricky and (not quite) avant-garde script gaining complexity from his four actors. Notable is Angie Tonkin’s lengthy monologue that is heart-wrenching to observe.

The perfect choice to end is the hilariously written Of Cabbages and Kings. A worker of G.O.D sets foot on our planet and discusses with Jim views of and on life. In comical enlightenments of how we came to be and the ‘accidental’ happenings on Earth, Josiah Moa and Geoffrey Bonwick play off each other well, heightened by Bonwick’s laidback casuality to the comedy. Accenting the void between the performances is spoken poetry, written by Sarah Farrugia.

If you are wanting to see theatre to make you think about the world and have heady discussions on life, the universe and everything (and, of course, to be entertained at the same time) then you must make Dionysus Theatre’s Areté: Gamma at the top of your list immediately!

Penelope Thomas