 |
ARTLOOK #15 | September 2005
Photo Max Barker in a scene from One Night Only. Photo by ’pling
Carnival in c-block
david finnigan brings together five theatre companies, a live band, circus performers and dancers in a true collaboration. by rebecca meston
DAVID FINNIGAN'S passion is infectious. When I find him at Tilleys, with fellow theatrical movers and shakers Max Barker and Stuart Roberts, he's not sitting but sort of perched with his feet on the chair. Just seven weeks out from show time it seems that if he sits properly on a chair, his energy for his latest project One Night Only, might explode.
In the style of late Canberra director David Branson and CIA, One Night Only will be far more than a theatre production, with players on stage and audiences on chairs. Bringing together five young Canberra theatre companies, a live band, circus performers and dancers, it'll be more like a carnival-all set in and around Canberra Youth Theatre's C-Block. In fact, Finnigan promises that audiences will be immersed in it as soon as they leave the car.
The full title of the show is One Night Only: Dallas Rockwell's Confessional Tour, and the show is based around what takes place at a pop concert. And when I say pop, I mean commercial, vacuous boy-band pop and the industry that supports it. 'The awesomeness of the show,' says Finnigan, 'is that this is something that a lot of people, young and old, will have had experience with. I haven't seen many theatre productions that look at what takes place at a concert from the ground up, so the experiences that we're examining, narrating and taking the piss out of, will be really familiar to a lot of people.'
Given the varying styles and obsessions of the writers and directors involved in One Night Only, the three plays are 'ridiculously different' says Finnigan. Yet they are glued together by the group's shared fascination with contemporary pop culture. So while the casts are separate, Finnigan says, 'There'll be a lot of cross-overs and interweaving, as these three stories take place.' First cab off the rank will be Savage Dancefloor, Finnigan's and Max Barker's improvisation-based piece. Having gone on nightclub field trips for research, this play explores dance floor politics. Says Finnigan, 'I'm fascinated by dance floors, and the sort of actions you can have. And my interest, with this play, is to show as transparently as possible what these interactions are, and how differently people behave on the dancefloor.'
Audiences will then turn their attention to a toilet cubicle and two rival music critics, in the play Flush. Given it's written by playwright Adam Hadley, audiences can expect to be both cracked-up and disturbed, simultaneously. In describing Hadley's style, Finnigan mentions Monty Python and the words 'insane', 'perverse' and 'seditious' all in the one breath. And then there is the final piece-the piece everyone's been waiting for-where ex-boy bander Dallas Rockwell finally returns to the stage (after a long public absence) for his confessional tour. Written by Stuart Roberts, Loose… Ships is a further examination of the pop music industry, and like the previous two, will be a short, punchy, 25-minute play, to be interwoven with music from Gypsy Swing (a combination of local bands Dahahoo and The Lenzmen) and roving performance acts.
As the main producer of this show, Finnigan is certainly
the driving force, however One Night Only is a true collaboration, bringing together a swag of talents. With the tireless assistance of Linda McHugh and John Hunt of Canberra Youth Theatre, the production, which runs for eight nights, includes artists from Bohemian Productions, Opiate Productions, the Masters of Space and Time, the National University Theatre Society and A Small Wooden Duck. When I asked Finnigan if bringing all these people together had been a logistical nightmare, he, surprisingly, said no. Having made theatre since 2001, much of his process has been about 'revisiting a lot of old connections and putting them all in the same place at the same time, which happens to be C-Block-a black box that we have complete control over, Linda and John permitting. So, in effect, we'll be having a sort of 30-people, two-week party in the space.'
Like Finnigan, Barker and Roberts have been equally busy making work over the last few years. Yet it seems clear that, for them, having someone like Finnigan around to really make things happen is an extremely welcome motivator. Says Barker, 'You've got a load of talented people in Canberra that might not get an opportunity to perform. [But] you've got to be pushed by someone, and Dave has the kind of drive to do that pushing'. Looking to the future, Finnigan adds, 'One Night Only brings those people together, and hopefully, this [show] will be the set-up for a lot of new links forged between young artists.'
Made here in Canberra, from the ground-up and about contemporary issues, this collaboration deserves reward. It's fresh, it's sexy and, undoubtedly, every night something will be different. Now surely, you can't say that about a lot of shows coming through here. Bring on the carnival!
REBECCA MESTON is a performer and freelance writer.
ONE NIGHT ONLY, C-BLOCK THEATRE, GORMAN HOUSE, BATMAN STREET BRADDON. 14–24 SEP. BOOKING PHONE 0422 932 918/0422 967 341
