I was among the packed audience on opening night at the Explosives Factory (Theatre Works’ second venue, accessed from the laneway behind 67 Inkerman St) to watch the latest production created by the Theatre Works Early Career Artists Program: Volition. Unfortunately, the experience left much to be desired.
The night was broken into 2 main parts. The first part was ‘The Volition Project’ which is a mash-up of various reality TV shows that have polluted the television landscape since the turn of the century from Survivor to The Bachelorette. The tone of the show is trashy to the extreme – imagine the least flattering moments of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Real Housewives of X and Jersey Shore. It seems clear that the creatives were aiming for this tone.
Before the show begins, each audience member is given chips that we hand to each of the contestants on stage that we believe match what their character should be. The list of options includes Villain, Token Gay, Dark Horse, and Comic Relief amongst a few more. Basically a list of character tropes that contestants in these shows would typically be defined by. We are told that the producers assign each contestant the label that the audience thought best fit.
What proceeds is elimination rounds as contestants create drama through each elimination round. There was a little dancing and a lot of mess generated on stage through the absurd challenges that were undertaken. At various points, a contestant would lip-sync to a recorded monologue from (what I assume) to be some infamous moment in whatever shows they were emulating. I did not find their lips in sync. If a performer is not going to speak the lines themselves but attempt to mouth the words then they should at least make it believable.
The second part was ‘The Volition Experiment’. Here we moved to something more dystopian and voyeuristic. The contestants in this production were not like the backstabbers of the previous one, but instead generally collaborated in an attempt to stay part of the show. And yet, they were progressively eliminated through the capricious off-stage producers as well. This culminates in a death march-like burpee exercise challenge that must have exhausted the actors involved.
Overall, Volition fell short in showcasing the talents of these early career artists. This is one of the more experimental productions I’ve seen, and most theatregoers will find Volition challenging.
https://www.theatreworks.org.au/2024/volition
DATES + TIMES
Tuesday 3 September – 7:30pm
Wednesday 4 September – 7:30pm
Thursday 5 September – 7:30pm
Friday 6 September – 7:30pm
Saturday 7 September – 7:30pm
