Adelaide Fringe 2012
The Disappearances Project
Version 1.0
Genre: Drama
Venue:
Adelaide College of the Arts, Main Theatre
Festival: Adelaide Fringe
Low Down
Director David Williams has created a theatre performance work that uses multi-media and the great power of stillness to explore the emotional process and poise involved in those left behind to cope when someone disappears. Are they abducted, taking a sly break from their life or at the bottom of a well?
Review
Few theatre works weave the sort of spell created here by Version 1.0 Sydney’s most accomplished fringe theatre company.
After much research including interviews with people affected by the disappearances of loved ones, Director David Williams and his stunning cast of two Yana Taylor and Irving Gregory have managed to create a short but potent revelation of theatre describing the mundane and emotional numbness that can only be imagined by those who have found themselves in this situation. This is devoid of Hollywood action and happy ending trickery; this is real reality with ground zero being the day they realised someone was nolonger around. When you are an adult it is not so easy to count you missing unless there are traces of a struggle; evidence of foul play. Maybe you have simply decided to take a break from your life. Tracking someone down is not necessarily an easy process in a world where privacy is valued and legislated.
The potency of this work is very strong. A slow searching video projection runs constantly adding to a sense of fear and doom at times… sometimes it brings a reflection of hope. Maybe the missing member of the family will return one day, and be annoyed that everyone else has placed their life on hold, waiting, worrying.
I have known people myself and they have gone missing and turned up years later dead, their striking bone structure dug up in a field somewhere or their tiny shoe found floating in a lake. For me the piece pressed on my spirit and although you may think it is depressing, in so many ways it is not. I felt some release listening and watching as the two characters mostly told their story individually, sometimes confirming a point with eachother.
If you like your drama thick and rich with words you will be richly rewarded by this production. Nothing about it seems false.
