'Houston, we have no problem here!'. Home’s Orbit Festival has
almost completed its successful mission and is about to re-enter Earth’s
atmosphere, as the festival goes into the last couple of days.
Landing on Home’s studio stage are the theatre company, Figs
In Wigs with their show, Often Onstage. As the title suggests, they are often
on stage but how did they get there, why are they there, and how do they leave?
The audience touchdown into a theatrical world of crazy costumes
(as designed by Rachel Gammon, Jacques Vert, and Frank Usher) and time
travelling. Journeying to the time of Shakespeare (bowing to the Bard himself) to
the present moment and to the era of the Backstreet Boys. It is a “larger than
life” look at theatre as an art-form. The all-women cast explore a myriad of
ways to enter and exit the stage through the medium of dance. Highlighting the
anxieties around making choices in life.
Often Onstage indulges in the ludicrousness of theatrical
traditions and conventions, breaking the rules in the process. This
contemporary performance asked what if your only form of motivation (whether
you’re a performer or not) comes from inspirational quotes. Why is it
compulsory for a company to adhere to particular conventions and rules in order
to receive arts funding from “men in suits”? Why can’t they do just whatever
they want, however silly or bonkers? This production accentuates its own
production elements to deconstruct what is theatre and why people engage or take part in it?
Hilariously, the show began at the end. There was a
prolonged curtain call, despite the cast not having done anything yet to
deserve it. It was quite strange that the cast bowed to the walls on either
side, they only needed to bow to us. Automatically, there was the idea of why
do people want to become performers? Do performers live for the applause and
for someone to love them, because they don’t love themselves? Why does the
tradition of bowing exist in the first place? You don’t see Doctors, Nurses,
Teachers, or Business Persons, for example bowing to other people and receiving
their earned round of applause. Is theatre for entertainment, or is it a tool
for change, education, and empathy?
Two scenes presented the cast and creatives setting up and
dismantling the stage, with the house lights up and the audience completely
forgotten about. These scenes were both comical and insightful. It was a
reminder of all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes which the audience
don’t usually see. Laughably, you had the vocal warm ups, the stage manager did
everything and was constantly running around. I loved how they opened up the
back of the studio theatre.
Both “behind the scenes” scenes were totally naturalistic. I
have no idea whether they genuinely were sorting stuff out as and when, or it
was all planned and written, or maybe it was a combination of both. Whichever way,
the organised chaos was very well directed. Then, the notion of pre-show
rituals was exposed: amusingly they kept telling each other to, “Break a Fig!”
There was a hyper-theatricality to the dance scenes, with flashing
bright lights and massive quantities of stage smoke pumped out into the
auditorium. In one dance moment, the cast wore a costume
which I think attempted to light up their wombs. I’m not sure what this was
trying to symbolise. I liked the wigs, signifying uniformity and fame versus
privacy - kind of like the wigs Sia, the pop singer, would wear.
The company foregrounded, in their unique theatrical world,
the changeable nature of performance: switching from representational to
presentational at any given moment. Creating the illusion of being transported
somewhere else and then shattering that illusion of performance until you
became self-conscious of your role as an audience member. Do we clap now? Do we
laugh now? Do we listen now? Do we leave now? Often Onstage is smart, playful,
effectively inconsistent, and hilarious. “Break a Fig” for the future, Figs in
Wigs.
Reviewer – Sam Lowe
On – 2/11/18
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