Outside The Box

Fringe theatre in Melbourne tends to fall largely (though not always) into two categories:- the self indulgent, undercooked, and amateurish; and the pretentious, obscure, and alienating. Outside The Box is different, and truly lives up to its title. For one thing Candlelight Productions is a non-profit arts organisation that is truly trying to change community perceptions. Servants is a group which provides community housing to those isolated, alienated, marginalised…mostly by mental illness. One must admire their intentions – people who genuinely want to change the world, or at least the community, are few and far between, and theatre is a great vehicle to do that.  Production values are high and there is so much potential which has still to be realised but promises much.

This play is basically a series of vignettes – life snapshots of those living in a community boarding house. The script has been built upon a series of interviews with  homeless people, and then workshopped, improvised, and rewritten by the cast and director, along with Zoe Bradley and producer Eugene Wong. That can work brilliantly – The Laramie Project is a classic example – if the people involved are highly skilled and greatly talented in those fields. However, at this stage of development the structure of the piece is unbalanced and much of the direction really needs a re-think.

What’s missing is a clear throughline for the audience. Even with a full house of followers and friends on opening night, people were coughing, rustling, generally losing interest. And that’s a pity. We never really empathise with anyone because, although we are told “what”, we have no inkling of “why.” If we don’t emotionally invest in the characters, then we don’t share their journey, we are simply observers. If Candlelight’s agenda is to change our perceptions, then the play MUST move us and take us on that journey. A classic example is the end of the first act. A voice over describes finding Carlos dead. We have no idea – except for people saying “where’s Carlos” in the previous scene - who Carlos is or why we should care that he is dead and so we feel nothing. If we had been given a sense of who Carlos was, and why his death is a tragedy, we might have cried instead of feeling removed. The second act is far better than the first, and is indeed quite moving, but I couldn’t help feeling that there were so many missed opportunities to change our thinking by not going deep enough into subtext, or climb high enough in building the emotional journey.

Despite the shortcomings there are some stunning vignettes and terrific performances from a talented cast. Standout performances come from Ryan A Murphy, who is quite wonderful and creates his own empathy as Eddie, and also gives a great performance as the Gardener. Adam Balales as Jack is moving and tragically real.

With so much going for it, Candlelight really should take a closer look at the script with a very experienced dramaturg on board and explore the subtext and structure for a stronger and more empathetic impact. This play, with more work, could change the community at large, not just preach to the converted.

Coral Drouyn