High Performance Packing Tape

Be prepared: there are no numbered seats, so when the audience is allowed into the Studio Theatre (after queuing for 15 minutes past the advertised start time) there’s a scramble for seating. There’s also no program, so I have only the Opera House’s What's On Guide to tell me that it’s Lee Wilson who is flat on his back blowing up a big balloon.

This goes on for some time until – bang! – the balloon bursts and the show/event/theatre-work begins. Sort of begins. There are lots of packing cases along the back of the performance area, small to big, the kind you see when someone’s moving house, all assembled and taped. 

Lee prowls around, dressed in running gear, juggling them into new positions. He takes his time building them and climbing them carefully, sometimes they collapse, sometimes they don’t. Do we clap? It’s unclear.

Moving on, Lee now assembles two large poles and, using plastic chairs as stepping-stones, he slowly unwinds three giant reels of sticky packing tape, making a bridge between the poles. This takes time. When this is done, he does a high-wire act walking on the sticky tape.

Soon, all clothes discarded, completely naked, Lee hangs from the tape, and then has to hack himself free with a packing knife, which has members of the audience audibly wincing.

The hour-long action is accompanied by a live soundscape created from recording the action on a previous occasion. Four people are behind Lee’s adventures and come on for a bow at the end. 

The company, Branch Nebula, is an independent Sydney-based group, making its mark on the international festival circuit. If this sounds like your thing, go support and love them.

Frank Hatherley

Photographer: Daniel Boud