Review: Seeing Unseen
In any good piece of theatre, the venue its self evolves into a poignant part of the experience. This is true of small theatre as it is with big theatre.
Skirting around an out-of-service elevator shaft, and up a five storey high network of brilliantly graffiti-coated stairwells turned out to be an eerily perfect prelude to the performance within. The Old 505 Theatre is a small space where big ideas are explored.
Seeing Unseen uses a cleverly devised combination of staging and multimedia to tell a story set in the future that reveals truths about the present. The dialogue between the three performers is a rich tapestry of serious tones and laugh out loud humour.
Elegant moments of physical theatre are punctuated with hilarious one-liners, plot point breadcrumbs are disguised as mad ramblings and answers are actually thinly veiled deceptions. Hidden within is a modern love story, intercepted by post-modern distractions.
The obscure gradually blends into sense as you are taken on a journey that doesn’t seem to leave one apartment.
Audiences can expect to leave the performance dwelling on its meanings, perhaps feeling enlightened, and definitely second-guessing any information that comes to them through a glowing screen. (Whether you’ll be taking the elevator or the stairs is questionable, both have their perks.)
Seeing Unseen. Until 26 April 2015. The Old 505 Theatre Company. Suite 505, 342 Elizabeth Street Surry Hills. $22 – $33. Bookings: http://www.trybooking.com/EVPE.
