The Last Man to Die
Thu, 30 Sept 2010, 09:07 amGordon the Optom1 post in thread
The Last Man to Die
Thu, 30 Sept 2010, 09:07 am‘The Last Man to Die’ by writer/director Peter Butz, is being shown in WA for the first time at the Blue Room Theatre, 53 James Street, Northbridge. Presented by Last Man to Die Company and supported by the ACT Government, the Australian Government, TechNyou and PACT Centre for Emerging Artists, this national experience continues until Saturday 16th October. All shows are at 7.00 pm.
You are invited by an Indiana Jones-like character (Benjamin Forster) to enter an ante chamber, reminiscent of Dr Who’s first set. Here he explains the journey ahead and the search for everlasting life. Then, using the QR code on the admission ticket in a scanner, the experience begins. You are led into the inner sanctum of the Commaustralis Exhibitorium, where a ‘hologram’ is talking to you about the future. You are invited to walk around and participate (nothing too onerous).
There are around a dozen scenes which are played at random and controlled by …. Well the answer is in the hands of all of the participants! Sometimes one is taken back and repetition occurs, then the programme may leap forward several stages in the experience.
The controller (or the controlled?), with lights flashing all over her body, invites you to enter the selection process. I was one of the chosen few and taken aside, then, in private I was told by the controller (Hanna Cormick) the seriousness of the whole experiment and the dangers involved – actually quite threatening.
Will a happy balance between quality of life and the social consequences of having a planet overpopulated be achieved? Forget living to a hundred, you could be here as a cybernaut for aeons.
The set, in the large theatre, is devoid of seating. It consists of polythene walls with pictures projected onto them. The magnificent video had everything from the basics of life such as hydra, meiosis, and jellyfish, through visuals of the static between capacitor plates / synapses and chromatography.
At one stage lines turned to geometrical shapes before turning into a human. Heat sensitive cameras – they were all there. Very cleverly devised.
Throughout the happening there was a tintinnabulation, with percussionist Charles Martin, playing a vibraphone and mellotron.
Hanna Cormick’s performance, as the scenes change in random chronological order, was strong and compelling.
Do not forget that this presentation is controlled by the audience, when you have the secret, use it to keep the pace moving along in your search for eternal life. A little too long, however a completely new experience, which as a scientist and visually orientated person I found fascinating. Very clever and most professionally presented. Completely different to any other show that you will have seen.
‘The Last Man to Die’ by writer/director Peter Butz, is being shown in WA for the first time at the Blue Room Theatre, 53 James Street, Northbridge. Presented by Last Man to Die Company and supported by the ACT Government, the Australian Government, TechNyou and PACT Centre for Emerging Artists, this national experience continues until Saturday 16th October. All shows are at 7.00 pm.
You are invited by an Indiana Jones-like character (Benjamin Forster) to enter an ante chamber, reminiscent of Dr Who’s first set. Here he explains the journey ahead and the search for everlasting life. Then, using the QR code on the admission ticket in a scanner, the experience begins. You are led into the inner sanctum of the Commaustralis Exhibitorium, where a ‘hologram’ is talking to you about the future. You are invited to walk around and participate (nothing too onerous).
There are around a dozen scenes which are played at random and controlled by …. Well the answer is in the hands of all of the participants! Sometimes one is taken back and repetition occurs, then the programme may leap forward several stages in the experience.
The controller (or the controlled?), with lights flashing all over her body, invites you to enter the selection process. I was one of the chosen few and taken aside, then, in private I was told by the controller (Hanna Cormick) the seriousness of the whole experiment and the dangers involved – actually quite threatening.
Will a happy balance between quality of life and the social consequences of having a planet overpopulated be achieved? Forget living to a hundred, you could be here as a cybernaut for aeons.
The set, in the large theatre, is devoid of seating. It consists of polythene walls with pictures projected onto them. The magnificent video had everything from the basics of life such as hydra, meiosis, and jellyfish, through visuals of the static between capacitor plates / synapses and chromatography.
At one stage lines turned to geometrical shapes before turning into a human. Heat sensitive cameras – they were all there. Very cleverly devised.
Throughout the happening there was a tintinnabulation, with percussionist Charles Martin, playing a vibraphone and mellotron.
Hanna Cormick’s performance, as the scenes change in random chronological order, was strong and compelling.
Do not forget that this presentation is controlled by the audience, when you have the secret, use it to keep the pace moving along in your search for eternal life. A little too long, however a completely new experience, which as a scientist and visually orientated person I found fascinating. Very clever and most professionally presented. Completely different to any other show that you will have seen.