De-Generator

I was unprepared for the emotional clout of this production.

Walking into a gloomy empty space and finding no seats for the audience was discomforting. We crowded together. Never venturing far from the mob some noted three lots of debris caught on pieces of wire lattice: one trapped mostly ‘feminine things’; another contained assorted pieces of hospital equipment; the third had an industrial theme. Tucked back behind these was a pile of plastic – dirty containers of all sizes mainly.

When lights came up a wild-eyed male (Alexander Baden Bryce) emerged from the dark, moved erratically, bewildered. The audience became fluid, moving out of the way, usually guided by lighting that came up ahead of and faded behind ‘him’. ‘He’ seemed unaware of us. His distressed state indicated maybe he was seeking something, someone.

Eventually a woman (Amelia Stokes), as dishevelled as he, appeared to survey the desolation around ‘her’. Our mob became more mobile and fragmented. ‘She’ began searching for other survivors of the disaster. When they encountered each other there was distrust, fear, aggression, violence. Finally, as if reconciled they were only survivors of an apocalyptic disaster, they accepted security in each other’s company.

They stood together in half light as media headline grabs from the past twenty odd years boomed over the sound system’s electronic soundscape: floods, cyclones, hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis, volcanoes, land slides … and various governments’ comments on climate change. A challenge to us to address our future. And don’t forget the plastics danger.

Jay McKee