In Real Life

In Real Life is a new Australian two-hander which speaks of the differences between real and digital life and how we might communicate in the coming decades.

In a secluded holiday home on 450,000 hectares of bush, “so I wouldn’t have to deal with the locals”, is Theresa (Anni Finsterer) and her grown-up daughter Eva (Elisabeth Nabben). This is a break from her job: she’s invented a hugely successful digital device for storing every last thing about you, called the Drum, 2 billion sold worldwide. There’s one on the set, nicely cone-shaped, weirdly responding to the occasional lighting cue.

Eva's not happy. Despite her mother's enormous success, she wants none of it and, after a struggle over dinner and wine, she packs her bag and leaves, much to the mortification of Theresa. She speaks to Joanna, the cleaner who travels many kilometers to be there because she loves it. Joanna is played by the same actor as had played Eva, and she has one or two other personas as well. Best of these is a science fiction clone who learns how to dance to a Johnny Farnham track. Elisabeth Nabben is very good here.

But Theresa, who gives up her prosperous day job to find or replace her missing daughter, has a one-track mind. Years go by before she is confronted by her daughter packing and walking out all over again.

On a broad, empty setting by Georgia Hopkins, only a tiny bit of leafy garden intrudes, no matter the mentions of mountain grandeur. And there’s a huge rostrum, bang in the living room, gamely managed throughout by the actors, though it would surely have killed off Theresa before the great age she attains by the end. Miss Finsterer handles it with aplomb.

Behind the action there is nonstop music provided by James Brown. Luke Rogers directs.

Frank Hatherley

Photographer: Phil Erbacher