The Verbatim Project. Directed by Katie Cawthorne. Canberra Youth Theatre. Ralph Wilson Theatre, Gorman Arts Centre. July 21 -23 at 7pm, July 23 and July 24 at 2pm. Bookings 62485057 or cytc.net.
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Young performers from Canberra Youth Theatre have collaborated with some of Canberra Dance Theatre's older dancers from the GOLD group to come up with gently amusing and insightful looks at human experience. Their script comes from the cast's own reflections upon their lives. The words are displayed on screen, spoken as disembodied voice overs, or live on stage.
Apart from a splendid set of yellow chairs and some striking lighting from Brynn Sommerville, the stage is a black box. In it the chairs are arranged and rearranged and sometimes sat upon in unconventional ways as about 16 performers challenge assumptions about youth and age.
The teenagers muse about expectations, about the pressures of being expected to know what they want to do in life. The older people perhaps talk more about what their lives have been but the younger ones occasionally show surprise that the older ones are still finding ongoing challenges.
They speak separately; they converse and exchange views in pairs. Sometimes the tensions are especially strong. Will a father return from Iraq? Will a relative survive World War II as an air gunner?
There are soliloquies but there are also moments of dialogue as the generations talk to each other and describe their lives. Sometimes they take on someone else's words and curious effects arise as the old and young speak as each other.
Elvis Presley and his songs get into the act briefly as the conversations swing toward love. There's much questioning. Have you been in love? How do you know you are in love? Images of older, settled relationships, marriages even, float around. And the question of death and dying arises at last.
A story is told about a dying man, a floating feather and the fancy of a relative that this represents the departing soul. Soon the centre of the stage is filled with softly falling feathers as the players join together in a last dance with uplifted arms. It's about affirmation, not despair.
All of this is done with the sensitivity that arises out of a strong workshop preparation and a respect for the words and experiences of others that arises in verbatim theatre processes. This group of performers take on the responsibility of the stories with humour and dignity.
The Verbatim Project is a somewhat surreal 50-minute examination of human lives and feelings. The integration of the two groups is excellent. This is the kind of cross-generational collaboration that shows why groups like Canberra Youth Theatre and GOLD need to exist. Such engine rooms of creativity ought to be fired up more often.
