Back to Back theatre’s ‘Small Metal Objects’ was one of my highlights of the Festival so far. It was just so different from anything I had seen before.

This is what happens! The audience sits in a small grandstand set up opposite the main commuter thoroughfare at Circular Quay. Each of us is equipped with a headset to listen to the action to take place.

The show begins and it takes a while to decipher where the action is taking place amongst the busy commuter traffic. Then our gaze does turn to two men, Gary and Steve, men with intellectual disabilities who find themselves accidentally emeshed in an important business deal between two ambitious executives.

The show went for just under an hour, and was just great live ‘street’ theatre. There was so much to take in. As the narrative played out, the play’s theme came strongly to the fore, of how mainstream society treats people on the margins, such as people with disabiliies and the unemployed, with disdain.

I loved the interplay between the action taking place and the commuters and tourists as they went about their business. What gave this interplay added impact was that there was no set stage area and the actors intermingled with the commuters.

The reactions of the public were a classic. One man was determined to take part in the action and continued a running dialogue with the cast, which the cast brushed off well. One very at ease at woman stood almost centre stage pretty much impervious to what was taking place and took a photo of everyone in the grandstand, no doubt for her holiday album. Some people were just racing to get to their train or ferry. Others looked on bemused, not quite working out was going on.

Bruce Gladwin directed this Back to Back production. The cast was uniformly strong, featuring Simon Laherty, Genevieve Morris, Jim Russell and Allan V Watt.

Back to Back’s ‘Small Metal Objects’ was inpired, vibrant, colourful theatre.