A small group of people waiting amongst people attending other shows at the Riverside Theatre Foyer. Then appears a floating white chair, accompanied by a graceful and charming woman and an over the top eager man. Our tour guides have arrived to lead us to our destination. I know that the performance will take place in a heritage house at the edge of the park. I immediately feel uneasy. I am not one of those happy people who love audience involvement. Without knowing, I had become part of the ensemble. I leave it to your own imagination what a small group of people, following a floating white chair, has to endure whilst wandering out of the Riverside Theatre and across the street to the performance venue lead by a white chair.
Michal Imielski is a magician. With an unexpected, but actually quite familiar trick, he has transformed all of us into his collaborators. The idea for HOW TO LOSE SIGHT was triggered by the story of a woman’s journey from light into darkness. It is an intriguing plot for a trilogy of plays about the people amongst us suffering sight impairment and total blindness in a fast moving and more and more careless society. HOW TO LOSE SIGHT is Part Two of Imielski’s work of art. He composed the music and wrote the script together with his cast and co devisors: Michal Imielski, Barton Williams, Cloe Fournier, Gideon Payten-Griffiths, Julia Landrey, Odile Leclezio, Peter Maple, Pollyanna Norwicki and Shauntelle Benjamin. Designer Lucy Wong and Movement Advisor Cloe Furnier contribute ingeniously.
Once our little parade arrives at the charming cottage we are split into three small groups. The door opens and we enter the mysterious world of blindness. There is no escape. Each group is ushered into separate rooms and it becomes clear that we are on a ghost train trip. The rooms are tiny. The actors literally sit on our laps, or we on theirs. The closeness is intimidating, uncomfortable and at times frightening.
The show is an amalgamation of experimental physical theatre, art installation, musical rollercoaster, contemporary dance mixed with glimpses of comedy, however, always confronting and eye opening. We learn and start to experience what it must feel like to lose sight, never having seen light, being blinded through a violent attack, falling in love without being able to see what we love. At one time, we sit isolated in a room and listen to the reactions of the two other groups to what we had seen before. We are blind at this moment and only able to hear. A unique experience. I do not want to give away the stories. I believe that everyone who sees this production will have a different reaction and comprehension of what unfolds.
The stories have no connection, are raw material at times and on the edge of being banal. “I’ll never go on a blind date again.” However, the whole team is to be commended for the commitment, bravery and willingness to cross borders in their effort to make us aware of our own sightlessness. If you are voyeuristic, not afraid of intimacy, not claustrophobic and eager for audience participation this is your show. If you are afraid of all these things, this is your chance to overcome all those scary inner demons.
I still feel the fingers of that actress falling in love with my hairy arm, which made me ask myself why I did not wear one of my usual long sleeved shirts. I found the answer when I took my first deep breath after leaving “The House”. I did not know that I put on a costume when I chose to wear short sleeves on a mild and sunny day. So, no more shorts sleeves in the future.
A SHH Company in association with Blacktown Arts production, HOW TO LOSE SIGHT opened on Wednesday November 30 and plays until Saturday December 10, 2011.
© Markus Weber, EMU Productions (theatre and music) Pty Ltd
Tags: HOW TO LOSE SIGHT, Michal Imielski, Barton Williams, Cloe Fournier, Gideon Payten-Griffiths, Julia Landrey, Odile Leclezio, Peter Maple, Pollyanna Norwicki, Shauntelle Benjamin,Lucy Wong, Cloe Furnier, SHH Company, Blacktown Arts.