Theatre, but not as we know it
The traditional seats and stage are thrown out the window with Grand Opening, writes
Dani McDonald.
Auckland’s Civic Theatre will be inside out as a new show explores the nooks and crannies behind the main stage. Unusual, yes. That’s how awardwinning director Jo Randerson wants it to be.
Grand Opening, presented by Wellington’s independent theatre company Barbarian Productions, is part of Auckland Live’s Summer in the Square.
This is no ordinary theatre show. There are no seats and there is no stage and there are more actors than audience members. ‘‘We were thinking about the traditional audience experience that you have when you come into one of those buildings and you sit down and watch a show. We thought, ‘well, let’s just take people on a reverse experience of that so they get to see all the different parts of the building’,’’ Randerson said.
The show was such a success in Wellington’s Opera House that Randerson and her husband and business partner Thomas LaHood took it to Auckland.
A total of 65 performers – many from Auckland’s theatre community – take groups of 12 people to the depths of the building, exploring its rooms and characters
‘‘We like to draw attention to some of the awesome creativity that is happening in the city so I guess it’s about not just the large grand shows that take place on the main stage, the big concerts and the big musical productions but also the beautiful community work that contributes to the whole creative sense of the cities we live in,’’ Randerson said.
About 24 of the performers come from the Auckland Theatre Company’s Summer School, about 20 from a choir and the rest are from Wellington or are recent inhabitants of Auckland.
Randerson calls the 30-minute show an ‘‘immersive theatre experience’’.
‘‘It’s about entering into full spaces surrounded by other performers where you take part in a scene rather than just watch,’’ she explained.
‘‘It’s interactive in that way but we’re careful to not put pressure on anyone who [don’t want to be a part of it]. People have that fear of immersive as, ‘oh they’re going to drag me up on stage’, but in this instance there is no stage because it is about moving through a building. It’s more about being able to participate and interact with what is happening with the rooms you come into.
‘‘If you’re a shy person you can stand at the back of the group. I’m usually one of those people myself.’’
It’s not a history tour, but some stories could be used. ‘‘It’s quite a surprising tour, it’s not just your traditional ‘in this room’ or ‘this room used to be this’ because Civic also does those tours but this is really, and I think that’s one thing we love as a company, kind of surprising people with the spaces that they enter into,’’ Randerson said.
‘‘A space might be used as something quite different from what you were expecting it to be used for.’’
The idea came about when Randerson and Lahood found themselves watching an usher dealing with a restless crowd eager to take their seats at the festival.
‘‘They’re so beautiful to watch because they think they’re not being watched. They have this amazing humanity,’’ Randerson said.
‘‘It was because the show wasn’t ready to open and the poor usher had to keep making announcements to all these people who were standing there with their tickets trying to get in and watching the ushers communicate back and forth between themselves.
‘‘We couldn’t hear what they were saying but clearly there was a lot of stress and the head usher would give them an instruction like, can you tell everyone to wait and be calm and wait another five minutes. I think that’s something we love as a company too in a way, when things go a bit wrong it suddenly gets really interesting.’’
The entire show might be a logistical nightmare for the production, stage and creative management but seeing the reactions of the audience was all worth it, Randerson said.
‘‘Almost every time we do it we are like, ‘ah my goodness! Why are we doing this?’ And then every time we finish we are so glad when we see how happy the audience is at the end. But there will be times when we are pulling our hair out and wishing we hadn’t taken on this huge task but it is fun, it is really fun for people and it’s hard work.
‘‘I love seeing people come out of the show. They look sort of mildly shocked, they’re laughing like crazy, often they say, I want to do it again.’’
❚ Grand Opening runs from January 20-21. Bookings essential. Tickets are $15, from aucklandlive.co.nz