Luigi Pirandello's 'Six Characters In Search Of An Author' was one of the earlier absurdist plays and, although people were outraged when it was first performed in the 1920s, it’s now regarded as a masterpiece
Playing the Spring Hill Reservoir, the production starts with a group of actors beginning rehearsal, when a dysfunctional family enters the theatre making the strangest of claims. Abandoned by their author, they are unfinished — they are characters in need of a new author to complete their story and, ultimately, to free them from eternal limbo.
Pirandello uses the “theatre of theatre” to explore the differences between reality and illusion – he explores relativity, which stemmed from Einstein’s 1915 theory, and threw the whole notion of knowledge and truth into question.
Built in 1871 to provide fresh water to Brisbane up to the 1960s, the reservoir is now thankfully free of water and sharks, so that makes things relatively easy for the cast. Lucky, because watery places and theatre don't mix well. Here are 5 watery places you shouldn't do theatre:The Bathroom
Apart from the obvious logistical problems of finding enough power points for the lights, hanging up the backdrop of Central Park, and trying to squeeze the baby grand between the vanity and the toilet roll holder, there are other issues like who’s going to operate the shower-cum-stage curtain, and seating (well, there’s one obvious choice).The Kitchen
Sure, it’s probably bigger than your bathroom, but how many audience members can you realistically sit on the kitchen bench without one of them knocking over your glass of wine or sticking their hand in the butter?
Bigger
No, you really need something bigger than a kitchen or a bathroom. Something like a public bath. Something like the Spring Hill Baths! A few performances have been done at the Spring Hill Baths over the years. More recently, Queensland Ballet performed the breathtakingly beautiful 'Sweet Meniscus' as part of Anywhere Festival.But if some of the actors from heartBeast Theatre tried this, we would have to rename it 'Goodbye Meniscus'. Besides, we’re not great swimmers – our lower legs would be flailing at odd angles while we sink and gasp (compellingly) ‘my knees, my knees’.
Anyway, our vision is … heh hem … too grand to be confined to a single pool.
The Ocean
No. Too many sharks, too much water.Back to dry land
One place you really wouldn’t do theatre is a dam or something like a reservoir. But what the hell. heartBeast Theatre loves a challenge, and so our next production 'Six Characters In Search Of An Author' is going to be performed in a reservoir, in fact an underground reservoir – the Spring Hill Underground Reservoir.'Six Characters In Search Of An Author' performs Spring Hill Reservoir 15-29 April.
